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August032008

Let's Track Presidential Campaign Spam

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , , ,

I've been seeing a lot more Obama-related spam (I think I remember one like "Michelle Obama takes lover") than McCain-related spam. Why? Are spammers Republicans? Are the Obamas just sexier to think about than the McCains?

Either way, as we know from modern media strategy, every little meme counts, so I'm going to keep track (in a casual, unscientific way) of what election-related spam I get from here to November, and try to suss out what it says about the collective unconscious of the electorate (or the spamectorate). Please copy and paste the spam you get into the comments, or email me the subject lines/relevant content--not the emails themselves, or they might just never get to me. If you're reading this and you're a spammer yourself, I hope you'll consider balancing out the content, and please do spell-check.

Here are my first two, which appeared right after each other in my work spam box:

McCain withdraws support for offshore drilling

Obama bribes countrymen to win votes

11 comments

Comments

Subject: Obama Removes American Flag From His Plane
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 21:18:39 +0000
Hey Guys,

I'm sorry if your political leanings are toward Obama, but somethings a simply wrong no matter who does it.

What a disgrace!!!!!!!

Obama - Removes American Flag From His Plane

Barack Obama recently finished a $500,000 total overhaul of his 757. And as part of the new design,
he decided to remove the American flag from the tail...
What American running for President of the United States would remove the symbol of his country?

And worse, he replaced the flag with it with a symbol of himself...

snopes.com: Barack Obama's Campaign Plane

=============================

YouTube - OBAMA REMOVED AMERICAN FLAG FROM HIS AIRPLANE! ANTI-AMERICAN

Barack Hussein Obama once again proves he hates America and all she stands for!

First it was the lapel flag pin, then it was the not holding his hand over his heart, during the playing of the National Anthem, and NOW he has removed the American Flag from his aircraft!

Time and time again, both Obama and his wife, Michelle show that they are NOT PROUD of America, the very country they want to RUN!!

America, PLEASE WAKE UP!! If Obama gets into office he is going to hand America over to our enemies on a silver platter!!

Barack Obama recently finished a $500,000 total overhaul of his 757. And as part of the new design, he decided to remove the American flag from the tail. What American running for President of the United States would remove the symbol of his country? And worse, he replaced the flag with a symbol of himself.

Jim BaileyAugust 04, 2008

They're probably just remixing actual news stories, rather than putting any real thought behind it.

J.D.August 04, 2008

Sure, that may well be so (especially if you hold a broad definition of "news stories," but don't you find them provocative? See the one above, for instance (thanks, Jim Bailey!).

EmdashesAugust 04, 2008

Here's one from this morning, sorta campaign related:

Breaking news: Bush is gay.

The text of the message reads, "Watch video." In this case, no thanks!

EmdashesAugust 07, 2008

Ha ha! I guess that explodes the theory that they are just taking random headlines.... or did I miss a story?

MartinAugust 07, 2008
Here's an interesting story in Salon about some of those phony Obama "facts" emails, which are probably generating at least some of this nonsensical spam. From the piece, by Mike Madden:
For months, anonymous e-mail chain letters, blog posts and message board items attacking Barack Obama have been flying around the country. Obama's campaign is concerned enough about the rumor mill to devote an entire Web site to fighting them. While some of the messages are blatantly false, the most dangerous ones mix lies and out-of-context facts just well enough to sound legit, playing not too subtly on racism and ignorance to make the truths they include sound sinister. (Now a book that basically collects some of the bogus accusations by Jerome Corsi is sitting at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.)
EmdashesAugust 20, 2008

Here are a few recent ones:

Hilary Clinton castigated in broad daylight

Hilary wants to get laid

And sort of political:

Tim Russert's sex scandal exposed at funeral

Re: New Orleans - rebuilding the public libraries

Emily August 27, 2008

I meant to post this before.... Neil Sinhababu at Cogitamus had a fantastic post about these spam messages. I'll post the subject lines, but do look at the link above.

John McCain Kicks Lilly Ledbetter In The Crotch
Japanese Prime Minister Denies World War 2 ever took place
Obama Captures Osama
Aliens Deny Impregnating Paris Hilton
Britney Spears to Study Theoretical Quantum Mechanics at MIT
Bernanke Blames Paris & Britney For Bearing Their Vaginas

Neil rightly points out that the "Aliens Deny" one is sublime in that it presupposes a lot of interesting developments.

MartinAugust 27, 2008

I just got McCain campaign spam in my email requesting donations - I have never visited his site, nor supported any political campaign, so it's pretty obvious he bought my email address and is simply spamming the list.

Talk about cheesing me off! Like I don't get enough useless emails, now I have to listen to politicans too?

ErikaSeptember 17, 2008

Today:

Hillary to spend rest of campaign in soundproof box

EmilySeptember 22, 2008

The latest, somewhat politics-related:

You can "boycott" this whole "recession"

Emily September 28, 2008

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