Live, from Virginia….
I had heard earlier in the day that McCain was having some sort of telephone town hall today, but I was still somewhat taken aback when the phone rang after dinner and I was connected to it. I’d love to know how I got on their list of "independents and moderates" — Virginia doesn’t have party registration. Is it because I voted in the Republican presidential primary in 2000? If so, their data systems did a good job of matching me to my voting history at my old address.
When I was connected to the call, it was already under way — I assume they had some fixed number of
lines available, and when someone hung up on them, they went down their
list of numbers until they reached someone else. When I came on, he was in the middle of a response to question about farm subsidies and sugar tarifs — I thought he gave the right answer (that they’re undefensible). He did a poor job on one about how to respond to people who say that he’d just be Bush 2.0 — going into his differences with Obama, before seeming to remember what the question was. I only listened for about 10 minutes because the boys were needing my attention.
I’ve never lived in a state that was really in play during a Presidential election. It should be interesting. According to Real Clear Politics’ poll averaging, McCain has a slight lead in Virginia so far. Given that Virginia hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Kennedy, Obama’s doing well even to keep it in play. Four years ago, I let myself be caught up in the election-day frenzy enough to believe that Kerry had a chance. I think Obama’s got more than a chance, but we’ve got four long months to go.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Virginia voted for Nixon in 60, Johnson in 64, hasn’t voted for a Dem since Johnson. My guess is, if VA votes for Obama, it won’t be crucial, because it will be as part of a national landslide and VA’s electoral votes won’t be what put him over the top. That said, the important story (I think) is Oregon, when they called the national election for Reagan in 84 and all the Dems who hadn’t voted yet stayed home and Dem candidates in Oregon who might have won got decimated. Enthusiastic Dems who think VA is in play will do a LOT more for the Dems in the legislature than weepy Dems who think McC is a foregone conclusion.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Those telephone town halls are VERY deceptive. It’s amazing technology — if you get the kind that say, “Press 2 to ask a question”, they let you record your question and then campaign staff can not only preview your question to decide whether it gets through (and of course only put through those they want him to answer) but whether or not they put you through, they can gather data on you based on your question, like whether you are concerned about the economy or whether you’re opposed to the war.
It’s really a massive data-gathering scheme disguised as a town-hall meeting, with all the perks of pre-screening calls but all the veneer of openness and responsivness. Brilliant politically, really.