Phone Banking

Last night Bitter and I hosted a small phone banking party.  Phone banking is not something I’ve been doing, because I hate talking on the phone, especially to random strangers.  But I tried it.  I’ve discovered it’s mostly leaving messages on answering machines, and we have a script for that.  The script is very nice and polite.  The thought of changing it up a bit amused me:

“I’m a fellow sportsmen calling on behalf of McCain-Palin, we’re really looking for your support this fall because Barack Obama is well known to be a gun banning progressive weenie from the corrupt Chicago political establishment, who thinks we Pennsylvanians are bitter people who cling to our guns and religion because evil Republicans have ruined the economy.  Is that the kind of change you want?  Vote McCain-Palin on November 4th.  Thank you.  This call was paid for by the blood of American patriots, who brought us something called the First Amendment.  Have a great evening!”

That would have been a far better answering machine message, but alas, we have to appear professional, and make sure we follow the proper campaign finance rules.  I did have a few on the list who said they were voting for Obama. This is a list of people identified as sportsmen, who are either independents or soft Republicans within our district.  We don’t argue with the Obamatons, just thank them for taking the survey and move on.  Most people are supporting McCain/Palin, which is good news.

In total we called 212 people, and stuffed 250 or so envelopes for people to do literature drops on behalf of both McCain/Palin and Tom Manion for Congress.  We offered free pizza to anyone who showed up, which was paid for out of my own pocket.  I think that’s legal.  If the FEC wants to come after me for a few pizzas and some fried mushrooms, I’m sure they can track me down.