Obama's telephone fundraiser says "We're a christian Nation... Weren't The Founders christians?"

[Ian David]

FWIW, this is not enough to turn me off of Obama. I'd still vote for a Gore / Obama ticket, for example. But I think this is worth contacting his campaign and making a small fuss.


From the blog, Hullabloo:
My Conversation With Barack's Fundraisers
by poputonian

This is pretty much how the telephone solicition went down:

FUNDRAISER: {Opening script} ... can we count on you for $150?

ME: I will vote Democrat, but I won't give any money to Obama's campaign. I disagree with him when he says it does no harm to children when adult authorities force them to stand and recite the pledge ritual.

FUNDRAISER: {Long follow-up script} ... can we count on you for $50?

ME: No, Barack Obama doesn't respect the separation of Church and State the way I believe he should.

FUNDRAISER: But but ... we're a Christian nation ... that's what we are. Weren't the Founders Christians?

ME: Not necessarily; some were, but some were also atheists and some were deists. You can track the way Virginia law asserted in the positive that atheists were eligible for public office. If Obama gets the Democratic nomination, I will vote for him, and I will vote for him in the primary above Edwards or Hillary. But he won't get money from me as long as he panders to the religious nuts in this country. Please tell Obama that I said that.

FUNDRAISER: OK - thank you for your time.

More:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html#4354359121672242089

[uppityperson]

1. I would call or write them and give them this person's name.

They need to be better trained.

[murielm99]

2. Once again,

are you sure these are Obama's fundraisers?

Or, are these calls from the opposition trying to put people off Obama? How many times in the past have they done this?

BTW, we got an Obama call last week. It was nothing like that.

[Ian David]

3. Either way, Obama's campaign needs to hear about it. n/t

[MethuenProgressive]

4. Fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake...

I can't believe anyone would fall for the claim that such a phone call ever took place.

[Ian David]

5. It's from a respected blog that made one of the top 10 liberal blogs of 2006. n/t

[paulk]

12. so?

you don't think the right wing smear machine routinely plants stuff like this on left wing blogs?

this is classic right wing agitprop...

If the call ever happened, which is not verifiable, how would a person know if the call even came from Obama's people?

[Ian David]

14. Caller ID. n/t

[paulk]

30. does "poputonian"say, anywhere in the article, that he verified

the caller using caller ID?

No, he doesn't, which means we have to rely on the credibility of, what you call a "respected liberal site". Ok, you can respect it then.

I don't trust stuff like this, liberal site or not. I've seen enough garbage directed at Democrats running for office from "liberal" sites to take all of it with a mountain of salt.

I'm still not buying.

[Colobo]

31. Regardless of it happening or not

Obama is the best candidate out there, and I will vote for him in the primaries.

[Vinca]

27. I got a similar phone call in NH right after Obama announced.

I was suspicious that it even came from the Obama campaign and I wasn't about to give up a credit card number for a $150 donation, which is what they wanted. The guy on the other end was really pissy when I said I made all my donations online. I don't know if this is the Obama campaign or not. If it is, they need to shape up.

[madrchsod]

6. my daughter did this in 2004

they follow a script and can not ad lib at all.there were times she wished she could have but she needed the money..

[loyalsister]

7. They are not all so tightly scripted

Some campaigns trust the people they hire and allow them some latitude.
OR
Some people who are hired may not follow directions.

[Cocoa]

18. this wasn't a script

the campaign can't provide answers for every possible question. This fundraiser did not find on p. 1,065 of the manual, "If someone challenges the senator's position on separation of church and state, the answer is 'America is a Christian nation.'"

[Telly Savalas]

19. Money?

People get paid to phone canvas?

Sheesh. Everybody whines about money in politics, but how are we going to get rid of money in politics if candidates can't even find people civic minded enough to volunteer for them?

[Zhade]

8. Digby handled that well, even if he was a little more genteel than I would have been.

The FUCk we're a "Christian nation" - I don't like hearing a DEM candidate's people fielding that lie.

I like your mention of a Gore/Obama ticket, because it's given me a great way to think about those I won't support for president. For example, Clinton, Edwards or Obama are not acceptable to me as anything higher than the vice-presidential slot, if any.

[Clark2008]

15. I'm a Christian and I know that we're not a Christian nation and

that the Founders were not all Christians - and those who were weren't the fundie variety (most were Presbyterian or Universalist).

Where'd Obama find these people?

[Cha]

9. Yeah, they were a motley crew

just like the rest of us. I have nothing against Christians who believe in the real teachings of Christ but I want a seperation of Church and State. I'm tired of people thinking we all have to be the same way. There are other roads to Peace besides worshipping one prophet.

[Clark2008]

17. Amen (no pun intended).

My Christian faith teaches me not to judge others. I want to know what Bible the fundie-types read because it doesn't match mine at all.

Mine tells me not to judge, that the poor should be cared for, that Jesus was a man of peace and that Jesus did away with all Jewish law (including the 10 Commandments, replacing them with only two - having no other God and the Golden Rule - and that's IT).

They don't seem to follow ANY of that.

[sakabatou]

10. For that fundraiser person:

Read the Treaty of Tripoli.

[AtomicKitten]

11. I just watched Jesus Camp.

The above-captioned conversation is light years from anything I would worry about. Folks are free to donate their hard-earned money as they see fit.

[Radical Activist]

13. It was probably a volunteer expressing their own views.

It would be very lame and disingenuous to pin that on Obama himself.

[Telly Savalas]

20. Not "would be" very lame and disingenuous.

It is lame and disingenuous.

But it's the sort of tiring bullshit I've come to expect being slung from the internets at all of the candidates.

[Ian David]

25. Agreed. n/t

[Cocoa]

16. you can't hold the campaign responsible for this

people expect the campaign to train all its phone people in all the nuances on all the positions? People ever do phone work themselves? They basically throw you out there.

[MaineDem]

22. I think campaigns MUST be held responsible for this

They are responsible for the content of calls - both ethically and legally.

I tell people not to get involved in the discussion of issues without specific talking points. If the phone banking is solicitation only that's the only thing they should be doing. I don't know enough about this specific case to comment on it directly but I do think the campaigns (all of them, not just Obama's)ARE responsible for the content of the calls.

[Cocoa]

23. and sometimes people go off script, right?

when you say you tell people not to get involved in discussions, etc., it sounds like you managed a phone bank. If that's the case, then you probably had people violating this I would think. Then what do you do, you correct them, right? Maybe this Obama person got corrected if it came to the boss's attention.

[MaineDem]

26. Oh, I agree with you

Like I said, I don't know about this particular case but, you're right, people do go off-script. and that may very well have been the case here. I've cringed at some of the things callers have said after they were trained not to.

But the campaign is still responsible for what was said. I'm sure if the phonebank supervisor was aware of it, he or she would have spoken with the caller and corrected any misunderstandings about the duties of the caller. (I hope.)

My point was that the campaign - if indeed it is the campaign funding the calls - is responsible for the content of the calls.

[oasis]

21. Misleading headline. Is this an example of the average Obama fundraiser?

C'mon. :eyes:

[Ian David]

24. I assume he's a low-level functionary or perhaps volunteer.

Notice it said "fundraiser" not "fundraisers," plural, which would have implied that this was part of a set policy or position.

[oasis]

28. Have you ever attended a "fundraiser"? Was it a person or a thing?

See what I mean?:shrug:

[Ian David]

29. You can answer a Help Wanted ad to become a "Telephone Fundraiser." n/t