Upon commenting that I almost never receive political phone calls, I, of course, received one two today. The first one was a national poll that lasted all of ten seconds:

CALLER: “May I speak with the youngest male registered to vote in your household?”

ME: “No, we don’t got no males here.”

CALLER: “Thank you.”

These types of calls raise so many questions. Why would this poll only be interested in males? Why would they not have questions prepared for the females? If the purpose is to find out something about the attitudes, beliefs, or intentions of male voters, would they not want something to compare that to?

When all but one of the current mayoral candidates are male, and when all but one of the current City Council members are also male, this type of call, regardless of its intent, seems to echo the local trend: women don’t matter at the polls and we certainly don’t belong in positions of power.

The second call was a push poll which someone referred to previously in the comments. Sadly, I can now verify that Tom did not invent this. The caller was very polite, even after I told her, more or less, “look, I know this is a push poll, and if there are going to be statements about four of the candidates (no mention of McGarry or Smith) then this information should be accurate” and “to put it another way, I would vote last for the candidate taking part in dirty politricks, flinging mud, and calling this a fresh tactic.”

If you need cheering up after being hit by negative campaigning or the message that your opinions are irrelevant, check out the NSFW video below (and remember that this is entertainment, not a how-to guide):

Chappelles Show
When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong – Brenda Johnson
www.comedycentral.com
Buy Chappelle’s Show DVDs Black Comedy True Hollywood Story