McCain Campaign: Comment Trolls Wanted

Wishing you could be a campaign surrogate, but don't have a national platform? Do you find blogging your own opinions tedious? Wish you could have someone tell you what to think during this political season? Well look no further than John McCain's new blog outreach!

That's right; the McCain camp wants to recruit online supporters and activists to serve as comment trolls. From their website:

Help spread the word about John McCain on news and blog sites. Your efforts to help get the message out about John McCain's policies and plan for the future is one of the most valuable things you can do for this campaign....

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you've commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below.

Now, don't worry if you've never heard of a blog, or never written a comment, or heck, even used a computer. Because not only does the campaign tell you on which blogs to comment -- Redstate for right-wingers, Daily Kos for progressives (sorry HuffPo fans, we didn't make the list) -- it will even tell you what to say! Just click on the Blog Interaction page for "Today's Talking Points."

Just look at today's gem, entitled "Time For Solutions:"

John McCain will put the national interest ahead of partisanship, he will work with anyone who sincerely wants to get this country moving again. If John McCain is elected President, the era of the permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin.

You might be thinking, "What's in it for me?" As a matter of fact, for every comment the McCain verifies, you will awarded McCain Action Center. Which is important, because in Fantasy Land 2013, those things will replace the dollar as American currency.

Comments

[troykendal]

McCain is a troll

[slappymagoo]

What I REALLY want to know is: How many "Schrute bucks" is a McCain Point worth?

This reminds me of a story in one of Howard Stern's "autobiographies." Howard called a competitor to screw with him on-air. The DJ or someone on his production team put Howard on-hold...where he could hear his competitor's morning show. Now, normally, you couldn't play a competitor's program, but since the competitor's morning show KNEW Howard was on the air, and gave him access to their programming, Howard was free to listen to their show & tear it apart on-air. To me, this isn't much more different than the McCain campaign not only advertising for trolls on their main web page, but also listing the talking points for all to see and mock well before a troll gets a chance to use them.

I know the McCain camp has to make it as easy as possible for the wingnuts to access the message du jour. I also know, were they to try to make it harder, they'd be easily infiltrated by lefties posing as righties who want to get the word out. But still, you'd think they'd at least create some kind of "members only" page - one with a password necessary - where those who sign up to be McCain Enablers can get the talking points in private. As it is, this has to be one of the dumber attempts by the right to work the internet to their advantage.

[puravidavid]

Who's John McCain? Or, Hillary, for that matter? I listen to people who make sense. Like Obama.

[kilv]

It is emblematic to say the least that (unless this tactic has or will be adopted by Obama, and so far as I know it hasn't) one presumed nominee has used the technology of the day to improve the bottom-up fund raising and organizing techniques of Dean (furthering the evolution and development of the medium, or its plural media), and the other presumed nominee (described in the article above) has basically sanctioned the use of that same technology for what one may argue is amongst its lower animus.

Just one more example of the future-v-past argument!

-Keep on bloggin'

[BTJ46]

I don't have any problem with McBush robots blogging ridiculous stuff on Daily Kos or here or anywhere else. Long live free speech and let the chaff be sifted from the wheat.
What is a concern is a somewhat more sophisticated or insidious type of blogging that may be a continuation of the Limbaugh republican 'operations chaos'. Seeing some of the most outrageous misogyny in posts about Hillary and the trashy right wing talking points circulated against Obama by supposed Hillary supporters, makes me very leery. It has been an intense campaign and very deep feelings have been aroused. But now is a time to come together and unite to defeat McCain and the right wing agenda that is threatening our country and the world. Unfortunately, it appears all too easy to set a spark and light a fire of extreme rhetoric and discord that denies the best principles of both candidates and leads to threats to vote for McCain if your favorite candidate doesn't win. It is not unlikely that some of the people lighting those sparks are agents of "chaos". Be careful out there.

[Grannysue]

Ferrero doesn't seem to be doing anything, how about highering her!

[Amminadab]

Highering?

[fourex]

John your trolls have been here at Huffpost for some time, and they make you and your campaign look silly. The trolls are so weak here that ten seconds of rebuttal with research and quotes turns them into blubbering idiots.

[Megaflow]

They are *all so obvious*!! That's the weird part. They're annoying, sure, but not that harmful because their transparent ploys are so pathetic. It's almost funny, in a sad way.

[Krikkit]

McCain's only real chance at the presidency was torpedoed by Bush, and yet, here we have the McMaverick embracing the neocon agenda...

Ever hear of Stockholm Syndrome? It's where someone severely abused adopts the identitiy and ideals of the abuser in a bid to regain power. Sounds like the McChurian candidate to me.

[devanate]

I've wondered about the whole manchurian candidate thing in regards to his time as a PoW.

[lobo1939]

Just went to Michelle Malkin's blog site. She has shut down registration. Wonder if there is any connection here.

[zerostress]

Went to her site to check that out. Found this article by Alice Walker's daughter. Off topic but very interesting.

http://tinyurl.com/6ybmks

[AbbieXHoffman]

I wouldn't want to be part of any discussion that didn't allow all viewpoints, regardless of motivation, to participate. Stifling debate is both boring and does nothing to progress this nation forward.

[littlepuffycloud]

The trolls are too ignorant and stupid (Kevin James is a good example) to be able to hide their troliness. Also, their names are usually a dead giveaway...iHateAmerica...I'dKillforRush...KilltheBlackANDtheWoman...stuff like that usually sets off some alarms.

[queotic]

True AND hilarious!

[Opus007]

and also military references such as "SemperFi", "Fight Them There", "VocalVet" etc.

[debwarot]

I've gotta be missing something here. I thought the whole point of 'trolling' was that no one was supposed to know or suspect that trolls were being used.

[Philly4Obama]

Well, judging from McCain's average intelligence, his blog army should be a real hoot.

[wagadog]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Set them up to attack each other. What fun.

[schicklett3]

Well, I wish someone would blog that John McCain looks old and feeble, and that he has no power in his voice or his stance. He is not believeable, and looks weak and fragile. I find it very hard to listen to his Fairy Tale speeches, his flip-flop on issues, and his general demeanor.
The Republican Party really screwed the pooch when they nominated him as their candidate - Senator Obama will crush him!
Anyway, God Bless Senator Obama!!

[VOTER]

McCain Trolls are not allowed to indulge in Swift Boating!

However they are expected to vigorously participate in SWIFT YACHTING!

[VOTER]

Suggestions for posters signing up as McCain's Trolls: Kindness and Concern Must Be Expressed.

McCain's old age is a problem but can't be mentioned as such, so instead, delicately ask about his
diminishing height. He does appear to be at least an inch shorter since he started his campaign.

And McCain Trolls should display great concern for Cindy McCain.
Question: If she is First Lady, wouldn't dodging "sniper fire" bring her back into drug use?

[Bobrobert]

McDoodoo

Poor McDoodoo

His followers cannot blog - they are too hate filled and caustic to anyone with opposing views.

Remember to vote all.

[HalDonahue]

I love it, As a frequent troll on Townhall I think Shozen et al are so right. Get the points daily and then slam them back in their faces on their sites. Just expect some very nasty personal attacks made up out of thin air. Somehow I don't think we need to worry about our blogs LOL.

[Shozen]

We should sign up! Get the "talking points." Edit them out of context. Then post them! Show the world the true "McSame, out of touch old Geezer" we love...... to campaign against!

[Seattlelite]

In the famous words of GWBush -- bring it on! No time to waste democrats, let's get to work. Hit the repug airways and web site with all you've got!!

[troykendal]

at least there is a comment.....but it doesnt really matter

[kdubbg]

I'm going over to daily KOS right now (sorry guys I can't resist good Troll-becue)

[Fathoms]

I think you'll find, the trolls are starting to come out of the woodwork right here in the neighborhood. From what I'm seeing, they're taking a divide and conquer approach to exacerbating the rift between Hillary and Obama supporters. Let's clean up this cabbage patch as well.

[jah2008]

I think you are right. The question is how do you tell the difference between a real Clinton supporter and a McCain troll? Most posters' instinct is to shout back when they see vitriol comments that appear to come from the Clinton supporters.

[Fathoms]

Carefully; I try a reasoned response and evaluate the reply. It usually takes one cycle to tell the difference.

[ApolloniaCreed]

Absolutely... I just commented on it in another story. Just remember to remind people what they are attempting to do...

[debwarot]

I think you are right on target about that!

[lungfish]

Ok, ok, let me try, I;ll be a pretend McCain troll......

duh....... vote for McCain..... uh.... because..... uh.....he has an elephant with a flag on it!!!

no, wait, wait..... I have another one.... uh..... vote for John McCain because he has survived five plane crashes and a burning aircraft carrier and was taken prisoner by the NVA and he did it all for us....
uh....no, no, ... wait! I got one!
uh... vote for McCain because George Bush says we should....... um.....
no, no
how about..... uh..... Obama is ugly and his mother dresses him funny so vote for McCain because he wants to fight the war for 100years until we win it...... duh..... uh.....
Geez......

I don't see any problem with McCain trolls..... bring'em on......

[Mogamboguru]

LOL!

[kalala]

McTrolls are sure to be some tasty treats prior to the general election. Thanks to the GOP for serving some appetizers!

[Caolas]

It is campaign tactics like this that will be the death of our Country. This type of tactic ('don't think, we'll give you what to say') is what produces people like Kevin James who have no clue about the meaning behind the words they use.