Verizon Robocalls Customers Urging Them to Watch Obama Inauguration

January 18th, 2009 9:03 AM

Have you remembered to pay heed to Barack Obama worship services at his inauguration this Tuesday? If you are a Verizon customer you just might be getting an urgent reminder of this sacred duty in the form of a robocall as related by Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer:

Yesterday, I was all set to write a smug, self-congratulatory post regarding my tremendous wisdom in finally dumping Comcast a few weeks ago for the complete Verizon Fios package, including cable. With Comcrap now establishing an all-Obama channel, isn’t it finally time to make the switch?

Sadly, however, Verizon did something yesterday that I think is far worse: it left a rambling, pre-recorded message on my home answering machine imploring me to watch his “historic” inaugural, using a tone that assumed we are all liberal Democrats and Obamists.

That’s the worst aspect of the Obama cult/fad/American Idol victory (or whatever you believe this is really about): we are all compelled to participate. Like it or not, Obama is being shoved down our throats through a daily pressure campaign that permeates every aspect of our lives. Resistance is truly futile.

Between Pepsi cans, newspapers, magazines, television, clothing, bumper stickers and just about anything and everything else, there is no escaping their Messiah’s divine image.

That’s EXACTLY how it’s done in North Korea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Cuba and other assorted basketcase banana republics across the globe. Is this still America?

Since the election, Obama-as-God has certainly fueled talk radio’s fire, but will it also result in a significant revulsion by an increasing number of Americans?

Even for Barack’s supporters, isn’t there a point where this all becomes a bit too much? Why must a president be worshipped?

Their overbearing effort, however, reveals a major weakness: if Obama truly had such a lock on the American people, none of this overkill would be necessary. He’s still trying to seal the deal with a skeptical public and his supporters, including those at Comcast and Verizon, are using every tool at their disposal.

But as they begin to push much too far, the backlash could be unprecedented. Are they ready?

Howie Carr writing in the Boston Herald had a similar reaction to the Verizon robocalls and other forms of Obama worship:

It was the all-Obama Comcast channel that drove me over the edge.

Finally, I thought, this was the last straw. I would cancel Comcast and switch my cable service to Verizon. But before I could make my move, somebody called and told me that Verizon was robo-calling its customers and telling them to watch their Obama-mania special.

So I turned on the radio and heard an ad for some Obama commemorative coins. I clicked that off and went to the mailbox and saw Newsweek. Guess who was on the cover? I flipped on the Internet and went to Drudge, and he had a headline about Time magazine running its 13th cover in a year on you-know-who.

All this idolization of The One wouldn't bother your humble correspondent so much if the Obamessiah could do something useful like turn water into wine or change the below freezing forecast for Inauguration Day into warmer weather.