JetBlue said today it’d offer free seats to the most bitter political partisans, who might want to bolt America after Nov. 6.
The Queens-based airline wants voters — convinced the republic will collapse if job-creating-failure President Obama or let-them-eat-cake challenger Mitt Romney wins — to get their wish, and leave the county, if the other guy wins.
Customers have to go on to the airline’s Web site take an online survey, clicking the image of a donkey or elephant. Then after logging on through Facebook, the voter will be entered into a contest that could make them winners, if their guy loses.
JetBlue is giving away 2,012 one-way seats — or 1,006 round trips — to international destinations Colombia, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica or Bermuda.
The airline wants to capitalize on the nation’s heightened political attention, announcing the promotion this morning, hours ahead of the big presidential debate tonight at the University of Denver, in the heart of deep purple Colorado.
Moderated by veteran newsman Jim Lehrer, the debate will be televised at 9 p.m. on all four major networks, all three major cable news outlets, PBS and C-SPAN.
“We’ve all heard it said before: ‘If my candidate does not win, I’m leaving the country,'” said Marty St. George, the airline’s senior VP marketing and commercial strategy.
“Fun is one of our five founding values, and in this spirit we decided to give people a chance to recover from the political noise and follow through on their claim to skip town if their candidate comes up short.”
President Obama jumped out to a fast lead in JetBlue’s online “poll.”
With AP