Just finished watching the Ford/Corker debate, and then got a call

[johnaries]

from an automated Republican push-poll, [phone] Herndon, VA:

do you plan on voting for Bob Corker? NO!
do you plan on voting for Harold Ford? YES!
are you opposed to having your taxes raised instead of being lowered if possible? (WTF?) uhhh... No! (that'll fuck with them!)
do you believe that foreign terrorists should have the same rights as American citizens? FUCK YOU, REPUBLICAN ASSHOLES! *CLICK*

BTW, Ford did a good job that Corker never cut a tax. Corker kept bragging about being on the Sundquist Finance Commission, and Ford did a good job of pointing out that considering the mess Sundquist made, that was nothing to brag about. And he pointed out Sundquist wanted to start an Income Tax.

[karlrschneider]

1. Rats, I thought it just now started, I see it was from earlier

...

[NewInNewJ.]

2. Saw the debate, Ford did a good job, while Corker

has improved on his canned answers. Corker is so nasal, that I really couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying. Just hoping and praying for the deomcrat victory.

[Suich]

3. Why do they do push-polls anyway???

They seem really loaded to me. Is it so they can publish the results and make the Dems. look bad? I just don't get it.

[Eric J in MN]

5. The purpose of a push-poll, by definition,

...is to try to persuade a voter with the questions.

He was supposed to think after getting that call that Republicans are great on lowering taxes and fighting terrorism and so he should vote Republican.

[Robbien]

4. How in the world do they believe a push poll such as that one

would work in getting people to vote GOP?

Foreign terrorists getting rights? Such far right looney tunes nonsense.

[Pragmatic Pilgrim]

8. A basic rule of human behavior

is that people don't so much say what they believe as they believe what they are made to say. Any time you can manipulate a person into saying certain things--or agreeing with certain positions--their egos start nudging them to adopt those positions as their own. This can cut either way. For example, in the '60s and '70s, African-Americans held sit-ins in the lobbies of big corporations, forcing the corporate officers to publicly say they agreed with equality in their hiring-policies. Having said it, those corporate officers soon began to actually believe it.

Push-polls use emotionally "hot" words, too, which tend to trump rational thought and directly address our fear, anger, or greed. In other words, they blast through our flimsy veneer of civilization and appeal to our savage side. Once we've agreed with their questions (no matter if we understand, rationally, that the questions are intended to be manipulative), we've let our savage genie out of the box. From then on, it will compete fiercely with our rational beliefs and be nearly impossible to suppress.

Robaries did the right thing in deflecting the questions with his indignation. But of course he had been vaccinated against such insidious viruses by years of passionate observation, research, and opposition to Right Wing trickery. Most people come to such battles unarmed.

These snakes know that, at the very least, a push-poll like the one Robaries reports will shore up their base-voters ... especially after a debate that may have scored points against them. Remember, their base is distinguished not only by its fear, anger, and greed, but by its belief that the world has only Good and Evil. They're out to keep their adversaries locked firmly into the Evil category.

Bottom line: Push-polls have an impact. The Repulsives recognize, much better than many of us do, that they don't need to persuade everybody--all they need is a couple extra percentage-points. Enough, in short, to win a close election.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi Pragmatic Pilgrim!!

Welcome to DU!!

[1932]

6. Whatever rights Americans have don't stop them from going to jail when

they're guilty (unless they're rich and usually white, and often when they have friends in high places) and all too often, innocent American go to jail (especially if they're poor and not white).

So I think Americans are going to get what they want out of terrorits justice even if they get all the rights Americans have.

[Imagevision]

7. RNC/Rove is in trouble when they keep repeating the same game plan

it does really get old as Bill Clinton said; "they keep using the same ole dawg and that dawg is tired"