Last weekend, I was phone banking for the Obama campaign and left a few dozen answering machine messages. It was pretty much what you’d expect. I sat in front of a computer, dialed some numbers, and recited the message from a script. Unfortunately, the script’s key line seemed to be written by someone who never bothered to try to read the line out loud :

“I’m supporting Senator Obama because he is committed to overcoming the partisan political battles that have tied up the government during the past two decades”

Needless to say, the sentence length and alliteration made this difficult to say without sounding like a stuttering idiot.

The phone bankers seemed to be split into two groups, the people who awkwardly tried to make it through the script and left amateurish messages or those who just ventured off-script and winged it. Those in the second group (of which, I’m embarrassed to say, I wasn’t a part) did great, but in having a phone script too difficult to say, the campaign sacrificed a lot of message control to their volunteers. If they’re cool with that, they’re probably be better off replacing the script with some talking points instead.

I’m not complaining about the script’s message itself, I’m just sayin’ a couple of word changes and a well-placed comma would have helped a lot.