So, how is the McCain 72-hour final effort going?

Great Debates
#1

I’ve donated more than 60 hours to doing office work and data entry at the Kansas City Obama campaign headquarters, witnessed every computer, telephone and desk space occupied so much that three satellite offices have had to be opened in addition to Union hall efforts, and - as far as I can tell, the main office running 24/7…but I keep hearing quotes from McCain campaign chief Rick Davis about the supposedly unstoppable “Republican 72 hour” end effort.

So, what evidence have you seen that this effort is having an effect, or is even happening? I know I’ve gotten a lot of negative mail and anti-Obama robo-calls every day at my brother’s house. Is that it?

#2

Have you seen this fivethirtyeight article?

#3

Here’s a nice article and video from The Guardian about that office,

Obama’s army determined to get out the vote

#4

Yeah, I’ve seen it, thanks. But I’m more curious about if regular folks have seen evidence of this effort. I know that the Obama campaign has a huge number of people calling, and walking. Have folks seen similar efforts from the McCain campaign?

BTW, I’ve been logging call results. Believe it or not, on NOVEMBER 2nd, there are STILL undecided voters! What the HELL? Are you going to flip a coin when you get in the voting booth? Eeny-meeny?

Maybe I should make a Pit thread.

#5

Well, speaking from my own experience, (which is similar to yours), I’d say the effort is just as strong.

I don’t know what kind of a difference it will make, but there is a lot of energy behind the effort in my neck of the woods (PA).

I too am amazed that people are still undecided, but I guess that’s their right. Maybe they think that will shut the phone caller up.

I’ve personally not been a big fan of the automated calls, and wondered if the Obama campaign is using them also? They (GOP) have put a lot of money into this strategy, but I have no idea how to measure the tactic’s effectiveness.

I also have become so skeptical about the polls that I wish they’d just quit quoting them. I don’t believe them, the swings are just too great.

I personally think that if the media (yes, I’m one of those people that believe the media is biased) does not keep people from going to the polls for McCain (people tend not to vote for their candidate if they think the cause is hopeless, and just last week I heard Obama was up double-digits here), then the PA vote will be a squeeker and could go either way.

I think you folks might be, on average, younger than the GOP volunteers, so maybe today we’ll see a drop. But I saw a good effort this weekend.

#6

More likely, they’re just not going to vote. Some people just don’t think it’s a big deal. Or they claim that “no man is my master” and think that that will somehow come true if they just refuse to vote for anyone. Or they have legitimate concerns about the entire political/governmental process and refuse to lend it legitimacy by participating in it.

How convenient. Polls are, by their very nature, inaccurate. Wait, isn’t there one of those on the 4th or something? Isn’t that one kind of a big deal?

How convenient. “The media”, which is nicely defined to exclude the massive segment of the mainstream media which treats the GOP like a chicken that shits golden eggs, is the culprit behind dwindling numbers, not McCain’s repulsive and disgusting campaign and/or his utter lack of a vision for this country.

#7

What swings? Obama’s been leading handily in just about every poll I’ve seen over the last two months.

#8

Really? Offices so overwhelmed with volunteers that they’ve had to open satellite offices and send the new volunteers coming in to those offices instead? Because the story in this battleground stage, Missouri, is that the McCain offices are fairly quiet and they seem to be focusing their efforts on negative direct mail and robo-calls.

The pundits are describing the Pennsylvania effort as a “Hail Mary pass”, that they’re putting all their effort into there, and New Hampshire.

I can imagine that is true. I’ve logged a number of hang-up calls. From personal experience, my Republican relatives are all fairly on edge.

There was a stretch where the household I’m staying in (listed as “Strong Democrat” in the database) got a robo-call from the McCain campaign every single day. Not one of them was about John McCain as a candidate, his policies, or how he’d govern. They were all attack ads about Bill Ayers, etc.

I did get one Obama robo-call, urging me to vote. But the interesting thing was it had an option to “press one to be connected with an operator to find out where to vote”. Sort of a hybrid robo-call.

The reputable sources take all the polls and make a meta-poll. I don’t know if there’s a right-leaning equivalent of the left-leaning FiveThirtyEight.com to point you towards. But it sure takes the noise out of things and makes them a lot more clear.

I’ve met far too many radio station, TV station and newspaper owners to believe that the media has a liberal bias. Most of those guys were slightly to the right of Genghis Kahn.

Thanks for the info!

#9

538’s commentary is obviously left-leaning, but their analysis appears to be totally impartial. If you ignore the words and just look at the numbers you aren’t going to see any bias. This is in contrast to RCP, which has occasionally dropped polls which skew heavily in Obama’s favor, but not done the same with the ones that skew heavily toward McCain.

#10

Since this is fundamentally political, it is better suited for GD than GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

#11

OK. I only put it in GQ as I didn’t know if it was a debate.

#12

It may or may not develop into an actual debate, but the responses are likely to be mostly anecdotal, and so not really GQ material.

#13

McCain’s camp wants you to think they are doing equal amount of prep for this election, but the pure fact is they are not. The 72-hour blitz is fine, but it’s not going to erase the 20 month blitz Obama has created nationwide. NO one in their right mind would ever think Arizona would be a possible Blue state, but right now the result is within the margin of error.

Same for many usually republican battlegrounds. This says to be empirically, that Obama is reaching more people than McCain is, and further that McCain’s message is not resonating with the same amount of people.

#14

Around here, in the past few days I’ve suddenly started actually seeing McCain yard signs and the like. So maybe distributing those is what the McCain final stretch is about. Never mind that the Obama signs have been up continually since March or so.

Of course, it may be that the McCain campaign is only just now starting to take seriously the possibility that Montana might go blue. The signs have been pointing in that direction at least since 2004, though, for anyone who was looking at them.

#15

I’ve got a good friend in Livingston and he says almost the same exact thing. Though he and a large group of volunteers are getting the dems ready for tomorrow - we’ll see what happens.

#16

I just received an email from McCain, urging me to exercise my right as an American, and vote tomorrow. It then very helpfully gave me directions to my polling place…which they think is in Virginia. I live in California.

#17

2004? You mean the election where Bush won Montana by 20 points?

#18

Perhaps they want you to exercise your right as a Real Virginian and vote twice.

#19

Wait.

Isn’t John McCain the senior Senator from Arizona? And he might lose his own state? Does that happen often in presidential races? :confused:

#20

Hardly ever…although Gore failed to carry Tennessee in 2000 (he’d be our outgoing president, if he had). Even in massive landslides like 1972 and 1984, the trouncee has carried his home state.