Obama Stars In New Robocall In Georgia Senate Race
Barack Obama is the star of a new robocall from Democratic candidate Jim Martin in the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff, telling Obama's voters that Martin would give a big boost to Obama's agenda in the Senate.
We've obtained audio of the call, which was first reported by one of Ben Smith's readers, and is essentially a phone version of last week's radio ad:
The interesting thing here is how Obama's instructions to come out and vote on December 2 are followed by another voice on these calls, explaining that there are are X days left in the early-vote period and to call the Martin campaign for more information.
As we've noted before, this runoff is effectively a special election, and so much of the campaigning involves giving a civics lesson to supporters so that they know that there's an election going on and how to vote in it.
There's also one thing Martin would like that would really help with this effort, but that he still hasn't gotten: An in-person visit from Obama.
According to this morning's deadtree edition of the Times, he's not going to get this one thing. Obama, according to the Times, doesn't want to appear too "partisan".
Key statement: advisers said he would not visit there, to avoid appearing to be too political as he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to bridge the partisan divide in Washington.
According to the Republicans, it's all up to Obama to bridge the "partisan divide" in Washington. Fascinating. They just got their butts handed to them three weeks ago, but now it's all up to the Democrat to woo them.
November 24, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Bipartisanship" means something a bit different to Republicans. When Republicans are in power, "bipartisanship" means that Democrats bend over and shut up for the reaming. When Republicans are not in power, "bipartisanship" means Democrats come begging to them with all sorts of concessions to get minimal sullen cooperation -- or at least a bit less active obstructionism.
November 24, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
...not true. Remember when the Senate was a 50-50 split (we had the tie break) The Republicans came up with the "Power sharing" deal with Daschel and the Dems instead of taking over with the VP tie break. I doubt we'd get the same deal from Harry's gang.
November 24, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hilarious! Absolutely hilarious! You can come up with one instance in the last 14 years of "bipartisanship" by Republicans. So, why were the Republicans so magnanimous, do you suppose? Was it because, um, Al Gore was the vice-president when this deal took place?
November 24, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that actually occurred in the king's first term. I believe it was 2000. I think that the reason why was because of the new hampshire republican who was going to flip, and then he ultimately did flip, so it was moot.
November 24, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. First term. But I'm not sure of the circumstances.
November 24, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yuck! Robocalls.
November 24, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. I think that this is a mistake. Robocalls are offensive and turn people off. I wish that they weren't doing this.
November 24, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is these calls are highly targeted to Democratic voters.
November 24, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
In this runoff election practically all appeals on both sides are only made to the base. Indies who are traditionally low info voters are hard enough to woo in even the most high profile elections, it's a waste of time in a state like GA that wasn't much of a battleground state for this election and was even less so in the past.
The people who get this Obama robocall are much more likely to listen just because of the novelty of Obama's voice on their phone. Wouldn't you?
You can make your own live calls to GA Dem voters by signing up here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p0WIy9v_9Q77aMjEAvFnRIw
Join the fun.
November 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Al Gore and Bill Clinton have stumped for Martin, both are bigger fish than anybody Shameless has had, so there is really no room to complain about that.
I don't think making it about Obama is the right tact. Martin wasn't able to ride Obama's coattails on Nov 4th, he's much more unlikely to do it now. He should be running a "all politics is local" campaign and making the run-off a referendum on Saxby Shameless, and his campaign tactics - both in 2002 and now.
November 24, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
He got a .2% lower than Obama in the general...this won't really even be close.
November 24, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess we will see. Who knows? I do think that it will be close though.
November 24, 2008 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
The make up of the early voter lines is completely different this time...nothing but old white people. When I early voted in the general it was about 50 50 racially and a lot of younger voters.
November 24, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
And that makes you happy? And you don't see a problem with that? In ten years the republicans will be lucky to carry a handful of southern states.
November 24, 2008 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
One word I will be completely sick of seeing and hearing by January 20, 2009.... bipartisanship.
Let's hear it again for....
November 24, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink