Dial 'R' for Ron

Jersey City, New Jersey, September 30, 2008:

The candidate could chalk it up to tireless campaigning, but it may not win him any votes. Some 3,200 voters, including candidate Ron himself, were startled to get recorded campaign calls Monday from the presidential hopeful -- at 2 a.m.

"First of all, I hate those recorded messages," said one recipient, Eileen Curinga of Hoboken. "But secondly, I didn't know whether this was sabotage or just stupidity. Either way, it's not right that somebody calls at 2 o'clock in the morning."

Ron, the founder and leader of the radical Ronatarian Party, said the college fraternity hired to dispatch the calls accidentally programmed them for 2 a.m., instead of 2 p.m.

Community leaders called on Ron to apologize to all the recipients -- "at a reasonable hour." He initially said he would apologize personally to each of the more than 150 people who complained to him, but then recanted.

"Nah, that's too much [expletive] work," he concluded.

The calls were aimed at Republicans, Democrats, Independence Party members, and unaffiliated voters in Bayonne, Hoboken, and Jersey City. The recorded message assailed Republican candidate John McCain for his age and Democratic candidate Barack Obama for being so tall. It also decried the obvious lack of facial hair on both candidates.

Posted by Bittle at September 30, 2008 08:57 AM