Dems Launching New Seminar Caller Plan for Health Care

The call usually goes something like this:

"Hi Rush (or Sean, Michael, Hugh, Mark...et al), I really love your show. I've been listening a long time. I probably agree with you 95% of the time, but I have to disagree with you on Obama's health care plan."

That kind of opening is typical of what Rush Limbaugh calls "seminar callers". That name came from seminars the Dems used to give to teach people how to get on talk radio and spread the Dem message. I see similar things in the comments all the time from various spammers. They'll start out saying how much they like the blog and how informative it is, and then they'll say some like "by the way, I was having trouble getting my manhood to work and I found out I could use (brand name drug) to fix all that. Here's the link..."). Those all get rapidly deleted.

According to this piece at Politico the Dems are still trying to get themselves heard on conservative talk radio:

The Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America has quietly launched an initiative aimed at making Obama supporters' voices heard on the largely conservative airwaves.

"The fate of health reform has been a focus of debate in living rooms and offices, on TV and online -- and on talk radio. And since millions of folks turn to talk radio as a trusted source of news and opinions, we need to make sure OFA supporters are calling in with a pro-reform message," says the introduction to the online tool.

The online tool presents users with a radio show discussing political topics, to which supporters can listen live, and the phone number for that station, for when health care comes up. It also offers tips for callers and talking points on the issue.

My quick sampling produced Christian radio, a local talk station in Buffalo, and the syndicated talk shows of Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Sean Hannity -- who will no doubt be thrilled with their new, liberal callers.

Supporters are then encouraged to report back on their encounters.

Maybe some lesser hosts won't catch them right away, but the big boys can smell those seminar callers a mile away. It's a wasted effort.