Tuesday, March 06, 2012

I am troubled

Received a political phone call this morning.  It was in support of the Obama re-election, and the script that the person read hit all the points on which I am totally sympathetic.

Here's the problem.  At the outset, the caller identified herself as calling from some kind telemarketing company, for the Obama re-election campaign.  When she finished the spiel, I asked again 'what did you say was your organization?' and she (a little more slowly) said the name of what sounded like a for-profit marketing service.

I am just not comfortable about this.  I have done phone solicitations for organizations in which I believe, and that is fundamentally different from hiring a company to make the calls, and paying them a cut of the take.  I wanted to ask the caller if she also made calls for GOP candidates, too, but figured the best I could do for her would be to get off the line quickly, which I did.

Am I naive, or is it too much to ask that the Democrats use motivated supporters to make these calls (where 100% of the contribution goes to the cause), rather than a private (theoretically non-political) company, who could be selling pet-insurance as well as Barack Obama?

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