A sleazy blizzard

It's a blizzard of really nasty robocalls and flyers in the mail.

After several last week we got 2 calls yesterday, but one friend got 3 in an hour - all disgusting anti-Obama stuff, from the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign - they aren't even using cover.

Here' s one we got (I got the text from Democracy Now's website, but it is word for word)

McCAIN ROBOCALL: Hello, I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC, because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the US Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home, and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500.

The flyer covers the same ground.

Unlike John Kerry, who was slow responding to the Swift Boat crap, Obama folk move fast. Here is their response:

OBAMA ROBOCALL: Hi. This is Jeri Watermolen calling for the Campaign for Change. I live in Green Bay, and like you, I’ve been getting sleazy phone calls and mail from John McCain and his supporters, viciously and falsely attacking Barack Obama. I used to support John McCain, because he honorably served our country. But this year he’s running a dishonorable campaign. We know McCain will continue many of Bush’s policies, and now he’s using George Bush’s divisive tactics. In fact, he hired the Bush strategist whose attacks even McCain once called hateful. Barack Obama will turn the page on these negative politics and stand up for the middle class. That’s the change we need, and it is why I have changed my mind about John McCain. Join me in voting for Barack Obama. Paid for by the Campaign for Change, a project of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, 608-255-5172, and authorized by Obama for America. (Again, text from Democracy Now website).

And the reaction is good. For one, a Madison man who quit his job rather than make these calls is getting national attention, including in the NYT today. And this from that same story.

"On MSNBC, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was launching into the Obama/terrorist spin when she suggested that the news media should investigate “the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America.” So far, the only person who’s felt the impact of her call to reinvent McCarthyism for a post-Communist planet has been her opponent, a hitherto totally ignored Democrat named Elwyn Tinklenberg, who was stunned to discover in the following days that he had received close to $1 million in donations."

MAYBE sleaze isn't going to pay off this time.