{"id":9746,"date":"2007-01-26T15:21:55","date_gmt":"2007-01-26T20:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9746.html"},"modified":"2007-01-26T15:21:55","modified_gmt":"2007-01-26T20:21:55","slug":"mccains-presidential-agenda-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/mccains-presidential-agenda-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain’s ‘Presidential Agenda Survey’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate that presidential campaigns have to come up with new and different ways to beg donors for money, but John McCain’s “Presidential Agenda Survey” is a pretty dumb stunt.<\/p>\n

Under the name of McCain’s campaign manager, Terry Nelson, possible donors received an email<\/a> with the following message:<\/p>\n

I am writing you, a core McCain supporter, to ask for your personal assistance. Senator McCain has tasked me to complete a major project, and I need your help to do so today.<\/p>\n

I am asking you to take a moment to visit our exploratory committee web site and complete the Presidential Agenda Survey…. I know that you have very valuable opinions about all of the important issues facing our country, and I urge you to share them with us.<\/p>\n

Senator McCain says everyone’s participation is necessary to keep our democracy strong and I agree. This is why I hope you will complete your Presidential Agenda Survey to give us input that will be used to build an agenda to preserve the American people’s faith in government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recipients are encouraged to go to this website<\/a>, where they can take a poll that, according to McCain’s campaign manager, will help the senator “build an agenda” of his own. Indeed, on the site itself, Team McCain says the unscientific poll results will have a “profound impact” on McCain’s agenda.<\/p>\n

Now, it’s fairly obvious this is just a cheap stunt. The poll is irrelevant; the point is to get people to the “Presidential Agenda Survey” website, where the McCain team can hit them up for a “generous contribution.” In fact, you can’t even share your “very valuable opinions” with McCain and his campaign team until after you’ve given them cash<\/i>. That’s right — no donation, means no survey.<\/p>\n

There’s two angles to all of this.
\n
\nThe first is the fundraising scheme. Frankly, the fake-poll pitch is an old standby for campaigns and political parties. McCain certainly isn’t the first to try this, and he won’t be the last. It’s a pretty weak pitch, as fundraising appeals go, and I doubt potential donors are really going to fall for such a transparent scheme.<\/p>\n

But the second angle is more embarrassing. “Maverick” McCain, after 24 years in Congress and one national campaign already under his belt, is putting an appeal, in print, asking donors to help him “build an agenda” through a poll? I suspect the senator himself has never even seen this fundraising gimmick, but that’s his name on top, his exploratory committee, and his campaign manager telling contributors that they check a few boxes on a sham survey and have a “profound impact” on McCain’s agenda.<\/p>\n

My suspicion is political reporters have been around long enough to know that these fundraising stunts are hollow and meaningless, so there may not be too much interest in this as a story, but it does have the makings of an embarrassing episode for McCain, should some brave, enterprising reporter dare to ask a few questions during the next McCain interview, such as:<\/p>\n

* “Senator, after all of your years of experience, why would you base your presidential agenda on poll results?”<\/p>\n

* “Do you always base your agenda on the results of an unscientific survey, or is this a new tactic for you?”<\/p>\n

* “Is there a quid pro quo here? The survey is only available to those who give you money. Do you only base your agenda on donors’ opinions? Isn’t that what this says?”<\/p>\n

* “Senator, how can a champion of campaign finance reform engage in such a cheap fundraising stunt?”<\/p>\n

This could be a lot of fun….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can appreciate that presidential campaigns have to come up with new and different ways to beg donors for money, but John McCain’s “Presidential Agenda Survey” is a pretty dumb stunt. Under the name of McCain’s campaign manager, Terry Nelson, possible donors received an email with the following message: I am writing you, a core […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}