I just got off of the phone from an old fashioned KKKarl Rove style Republican/teabagger push poll

[MarianJack]

At first I was having a pleasant time answering seemingly impartial questions about this year's elections being asked by a very nice young woman. She sounded like she may be African American, which I wouldn't bring up except for the fact that I felt bad for her for having to peddle the teabagger horse shit that the questions consisted of after about the halfway point.

The way I could tell it was a push poll, probably for our "spectacular and glorious" governor Paul Le(ram)Page, was from questions like "would the fact that Paul LePage is responsible for the largest tax cut in Maine history make you more or less likely to vote for him?" and "does the fact that Mike Michaud voted for Obamacare and has passed no legislation in 12 years make you more or less likely to vote for him?"

I pointed out with every question just where the lies were and I told the young woman that I was not giving HER a hard time because she was simply earning a living, but that was clearly a Republican/teabagger push poll. One interesting thing was that the poll was also trying to pump up Eliot Cutler, the Independent who handed the election to Le(ram)Page in 2010 and whom the Republicans/teabaggers desperately hope he does again. Cutler is running for governor for one reason, and that is to stoke and glorify his enormous ego.

In fact < I have seen some info stating that some sane Republicans (Are there ANY nowadays?) may be voting for Cutler this year. Wouldn't be funny if THEY threw this year's election to Mike Michaud?

It wouldn't surprise me if my results are thrown out because I am on their recording several times stating that it's a push poll, but several times when I pointed out that something they said in one of their questions was a blatant lie, the woman responded by saying that numerous other people had told her the same thing...interesting!

Just thought I'd share. That's my 2 cents and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

[hifiguy]

1. I got one of those calls in '02 during the Wellstone/Coleman senate race

Somewhere around the fifth or sixth bullshit question I informed the caller in very blunt language that I would not under any circumstances vote for Norm Coleman for dogcatcher much less the Senate and hung up.

[MarianJack]

2. I didn't hang up, but...

...I DID make very clear that I was voting for Mike Michaud and would NEVER vote for either Paul Le(ram)Page or Eliot ( vote For ME because I want to be governor) for anything ever...yuck!

PEACE!

[Curmudgeoness]

27. It was good of you not to hang up

after you started. These people working the phones on these polls usually get paid for the number of completed polls that they have. If you don't just hang up at the beginning, be ready to finish or you have wasted the time of someone who really must need the job.

I did one of these polls in PA one time, and when the questions were so misleading and pissed me off, I decided that I would hang up on any poll that will not tell me who is funding it. I have yet to have a poll by some conservative organization identify themselves.

[MarianJack]

32. This one didn't

PEACE!

[Brother Buzz]

3. Push polls are designed to harvest low hanging fruit, no?

Same can be said for slate mailers

You showed a whole lot more restraint than I would have.

[MarianJack]

5. I have a motivation for my restraint.

I've always believed that the second you raise your voice or use any cuss words, the other person will take that as license to dismiss everything you say.

PEACE!

[freshwest]

8. Agreed. I restrain myself from taking out my ire on minimum wage workers like that. I tell them and

telemarketers, or call center workers if I need to call them, that I know they are working from a script and unable to say what they think.

You did a good job with that as disrespect would have cost you man a vote, possibly. The so-called 'independents' are sometimes funded by the GOP to strip votes from Democrats, not to win and I expect they are paid handsomely for it.

JMHO.

[MarianJack]

15. I keep that in mind,...

...but this caller was from Buffalo, NY.

PEACE!

[freshwest]

17. Then you saved a Democrat a vote in NY, then, eh?

[MarianJack]

33. I hope so!

PEACE!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Any poll/market research calls I get, the first thing I ask is

"and how much will you be paying me for my time?".

I see no reason to help political or consumer stooges make money off me for nothing.

FWIW..I have NEVER had a push poll from the Dems in all the years I have lived here.

[MarianJack]

6. I don't think I've ever heard of a Democratic push poll!

PEACE!

[Trailrider1951]

7. I actually think I got a Democratic one a few days ago

The young man who polled me sounded like he was from up New Yawk way, and I'm in Central Texas. His questions were mostly concerning the Texas race for governor between Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott, and they started out in a general fashion with things like, "Are you a Democrat, Republican, or other". After a few questions, it became clear he was a bit more enthusiastic about State Senator Davis than her opponent. Hell, I brought up several of his talking points before he did, LOL, thanks to the many fine members posting here at DU. Hey, if Democrats can poll me in a county known for naming an extension of an already named street after Ronnie Raygun, they can poll you too. Answer them if you have the time and inclination, and disparage them if they are of the GOP bent. Let's give 'em Hell!

[calimary]

18. I ALWAYS do polls, if I'm lucky enough to get called for one.

Your very weigh-in can add weight to the poll, because you're speaking for YOUR side. Gallup, they say, always skews to the so-called "right." Well, one time, they called my house. I took the whole poll. Soon to find out that my one voice represented maybe 50-THOUSAND "average Americans at home that hour." Which means I had a chance to speak Dem/Liberal truths into that poll and my voice would count. Maybe add to the greater weight on the left, or maybe tilt the "rightward"-leaning trend back a little.

NEVER pass up a chance to weigh in! OUR side needs to count, too.

Btw - my favorite part of MarianJack's OP is:

responded by saying that numerous other people had told her the same thing...interesting!

VICTORY!!! SCORE!!!! Here's one big fat red-white-&-blue donkey-kicked tactic for how you can undermine an obviously oppositional agenda-driven poll like this. You don't think that the people working the phones don't notice this, and don't take it in? Think it's not sinking in with them? Think it's not something they might take home with them and share around the dinner table or at the Y or at the bar after work? This unsolicited and repeated anecdotal evidence, testimony if you will, from the real world - people who aren't paid to say this stuff or proactive astroturfers and planted trolls in campaigns to "catapult the propaganda"? Can't be. Remember, THEY called YOU. YOU didn't seek them out to add your own ingredient to the soup the way a troll can, and does.

And in addition to that, the response specified "numerous" other people. INDEED? Not just one or two - so it isn't the isolated oddball or random crank? You mean quite a few? A surprisingly-large percentage? Something you just kept on hearing, all day long, from people? THAT many people are saying this? Suppose there really is something to it? (Gee - ya THINK?)

DYNAMITE!!!

[Curmudgeoness]

29. I agree with you regarding Gallop

or any of the other professional polling companies, but these push polls are not even polls. They are just a way to do an advertisement for the candidate or against the opposition by putting leading and misleading info into the questions. They have disguised it as a poll to get the person to not hang up an to pay attention. If it is not a polling company, it is probably not a poll.

[fizzgig]

22. you're helping put money in a low-wage worker's pocket

we have incentive pay based on performance, otherwise you're making minimum wage.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. It's always fun to find the phone number.

We remember the Colman/Paul Wellstone push poll. That came from a D.C. 202 number. Many of these calls come out of Arizona prisons and Boiler Rooms in Utard Land. Coleman push came out of Golden Valley Minnesota Rethug offices near Hwy 12. These suckers will violate every law on the books to ram this garbage down your phone.

[MarianJack]

11. Mine was from Buffalo, NY

PEACE!

[glowing]

10. I had one of these recently in FL, Tampa Bay Area

And it was obvious the slant of the questions which I pointed out they were making statements that may be "true" but weren't based in fact...

They have this latest gimmick down here to "lower property rate", while increasing sales tax by an entire 1% (which would make us the highest sales tax county) all due to a "friend" of the Gov trying to get some Jolly Trolly established. The thing only goes up and down and takes just as long in a car to go anywhere. Tourist thing and tax money taken from people who can't afford it, to give tax cuts to the wealthy... What would the diff be on the savings for an avg home owner in comparison to paying more everywhere else?

Anyway, poor dude on the other side of the phone was probably getting more info than he ever wanted. And at the end, I said, I wish I could afford to vote Republican, but until I'm a millionaire/ billionaire, it makes no sense... He's says "you and me both" lol. Jack asses don't even realize who they pay crap wages to make these phone calls.

[MarianJack]

13. I've had the "good fortune" to have had this done to me 3 times.

Yuck & yikes!

PEACE!

[Shrike47]

12. I got a push poll call last year; I tell it was a boiler room because they said 'Oregon' wrong.

After a couple of 'would it change your opinion if you knew that the Democrat eats babies and slaughters kittens?' questions, I told the poor caller that she was telling lies about the person I was going to vote for, and gave her some factual information. She sounded like she'd heard this response before.

[MarianJack]

14. My caller certainly indicated that she had.

PEACE!

[Demoiselle]

16. How do you say "Oregon" wrong?!!!

Good grief. And good for you, speaking truth.

[classof56]

19. Well, sometimes it's OryGUN, sometimes OregGONE or a similar variation.

Always a dead giveaway that we're dealing with an out-of-stater. We Oregonians are pretty adamant about pronouncing the name of our awesome state correctly. Glad to know it's not just me!

[classof56]

23. Good for you!

Thanks for setting that caller straight. I highly resent those irritating TV ads trying to undermine Jeff Merkley, where they tell me to call him and tell him to get to work, or whatever. I've taken to calling to tell him to keep doin' what he's doin'.

Cheers!

[Cha]

20. Mahalo, MarianJack.. Good on ya! Here's to Michaud becoming Gov of Maine!

Love the addition of smileys to emphasize~

[MarianJack]

34. Thanks!

PEACE!

[fizzgig]

21. thank you for sticking on the phone with her

i've worked in a market research call center for six years and know what a shit job it can be, especially when a pile of shit push poll is dropped in your lap. that said, you were still giving her a hard time. the longer you're on the phone with them by explaining every answer, the fewer calls she can make, the fewer surveys she can get completed, the less she is likely to get paid. there was no need to lecture someone making probably not much more than minimum wage.

[MarianJack]

35. I didn't lecture, but at about 10 minutes,...

...it was probably a bit too long.

PEACE!

[VA_Jill]

24. I did this a couple of times

last fall here in VA. Isn't it fun?

[MarianJack]

36. Yes

PEACE!

[Jackpine Radical]

25. I used to do that kind of thing.

At some point I just decided it was a waste of time; I was talking to a low-wage person who was just trying to get through a day at work. The most I could hope for would be to convert that person to my perspective, but this was an unlikely outcome of the interaction. Therefore I just disengage. I'd be far better off putting my thoughts into a letter to the editor or something.

[MarianJack]

37. Also a good approach!

PEACE!

[Warpy]

26. What that last bit means is that word of mouth

is finally getting around from lefty sites, mostly, about propaganda tricks like push polling. We still need to educate one person at a time, but it will work. It's just very slow.

I cost Dinesh D'Loser a book sale at Costco yesterday by pointing out how frequently he's been stuffing his foot in his mouth. The woman was a big hair Texan and I could tell by the look on her face that she'd been watching when Megyn Kelly laughed at him. She put the book down, gave me a grin, and walked away.

[MarianJack]

38. Good on you, Warpy!

PEACE!

[Brigid]

28. I very rarely get telemarketing calls of any kind.

And I don't think I have ever gotten a political poll call. If I don't recognize the number, I don't answer anyway.

[MarianJack]

39. I almost didn't.

I never give up the opportunity to state my opinion, though.

PEACE!

[madamesilverspurs]

30. Been getting a bunch of those.

Just for grins, I've started keeping a notepad and pencil next to the phone. When one of these calls come in, before I let them start I ask some questions: (1) where they're calling from (the caller ID usually shows a local Colorado number, but the callers are not local, the last one was in Boise), and (2) what's the name of the business that writes the caller's paycheck.

I note the gist of the questions, making special notations when they shift from generic to specific, phrasing tricks, etc.

If they mention something erroneous, I'll give the correct version with as few words as possible; a couple of times the caller has chuckled with me at the audacity of some of the blatant misdirection in the questioning. I let them know that I'm aware that they are reading from a script and are not responsible for its content; one woman quietly thanked me for that, I'm thinking she'd been yelled at.

After the call ends, I put my notes into an email to the candidate campaign concerned, with cc to our local party office; let's them know what's going around.


Should I get called by one of "them" or their minions, the rules change and the gloves come off.

It ain't boring!

[MarianJack]

40. Cool. I think that...

...I'll forward this info to the Maine Democratic Party and the MICHAUD campaign!

PEACE!

[madamesilverspurs]

42. Thank YOU!

It's been about 40 years since I was last in Maine, but it made an impression. So much so that when I first visited my sister in her new home on Washington State's Olympic peninsula I was struck by the area's resemblance to Maine. With each subsequent visit I am reminded again. Lovely place you live in!

[MarianJack]

43. My family & I love it.

Thanks.

PEACE!

[oldandhappy]

31. Thank you for this post.

I have told people I understand this is your job and you have to do this. But I have never really spelled out the lies. You give me a model! thank you.

[MarianJack]

41. You're welcome!

PEACE!