McCain campaign bribing commenters

[kpete]

McCain campaign bribing commenters

They really don't get it, do they? By offering prizes and gifts for those that plant pro-McCain comments on big blogs, the McCain campaign has just undermined any and every legitimate McCain commenter out there, turning anything pro-McCain into the equivalent of spam.

http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccain-campaign-bribing-commenters.html

May 21, 2008

McCain incentivizing supporters to comment on blogs

John McCain's campaign is using their campaign website to encourage supporters to post supportive comments on political blogs, including the most well-known liberal site in the blogosphere. And to make things easier, they're including talking points with which sympathizers can use to get out the McCain message.

"Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known," instructs the page.

McCain supporters are asked to send the details of their comment to the campaign, which in turn will verify it and then reward the supporter with "points" (assumedly to accumulate for McCain swag)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/McCain_incentivizing_supporters_to_comment_on_blogs.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Wow. An immediate strategy that suggests itself:

Every time you see one of these McCain spams, ask the spammer how many points he's gotten so far, and include a link or explanation for the uninitiated.

[klook]

2. They must have hired some Tubes expert to give them this bright idea

And apparently what you get as a bribe (or, excuse me, "incentivization") are points. It's not clear from the McCain website what you can do with these points - trade them in for stupid crap like McCain travel mugs or something, I suppose.

Truly pathetic.

Edited to fix typo.