According to Teagan Goddard's Political Political World, The Straight Talk Express is looking to deposit spam and other crap in your mailboxes and on websites throughout the virtual world. Specifically, we wants people to spread talking points all over the damned place:
"McCain Offers Prizes for Spam Comments
Sen. John McCain's campaign is urging supporters to spam blogs and forums with official talking points, according to the Washington Post. If you do a good job, you can even win prizes.
"That, in essence, is the McCain campaign's pitch to supporters to join its new online effort, one that combines the features of 'AstroTurf' campaigning with the sort of customer-loyalty programs offered by airlines, hotel chains, restaurants and the occasional daily newspaper."
"People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express.""
More below the fold...
It would be fun to cut and paste these talking points, but screwing with them, making them say the wrong thing and changing key words. I'm going to start doing it on Craigslist.
Recently, I posted a diary that lamented the fact that there are rarely any action alerts posted anymore, which give people who have little money a way to participate. I think fudging with McCain Spam-Plan would be fun.
What do you all think?
UPDATE:
His website actually targets DailyKos for spam. Check out this screen capture from his website:
This from Reason.com:
The Washington Post reports:
On McCain's Web site, visitors are invited to "Spread the Word" about the presumptive Republican nominee by sending campaign-supplied comments to blogs and Web sites under the visitor's screen name. The site offers sample comments ("John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan...") and a list of dozens of suggested destinations, conveniently broken down into "conservative," "liberal," "moderate" and "other" categories. Just cut and paste....
People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
Sure enough, here's spam central, complete with a warning that the "content of these sites is not controlled by the McCain campaign and may contain offensive material." Interestingly, the list of suggested blogs includes several -- InstaPundit, the Club for Growth -- that do not, in fact, let readers post comments. Hit & Run isn't included, but if you want to win that bus ride I'll be glad to help: I hereby invite commenters on this post, and this post only, to cut 'n' paste all the McCain talking points you can.