Obama Wants Your Donations
Got an email yesterday from Jon Carson, who appears to be the National Field Director for the Obama campaign. It says, in part:
Matthew –
I’ve never asked you to make a donation before.
O RLY? Because, Mr. Carson, your email includes a forward of an email from David Plouffe which says, in part:
From: David Plouffe, BarackObama.com
Subject: Deadline: Midnight tonightMatthew —
Election Day isn’t ahead of us — it’s already here.
Early voting has begun in eight states — including the key battleground of Ohio, where voting begins today — and it will be starting in a dozen more over the next two weeks.
Tonight is also the most important financial reporting deadline of the campaign. The resources we have on hand heading into October will decide the size of our voter registration and Get Out The Vote operations.
Your generosity has gotten us this far, but the need for your support today is more urgent right now than it will ever be.
Will you make a donation of $30 or more? You’ll receive a limited edition Election Day T-shirt before Friday, October 17th.
Now, maybe Mr. Carson meant that he, personally, had never asked me for a donation before, but I can’t be the only person for whom the “From:” lines in Obama fund-raising emails start to blur together.
(Huh, honestly, having pasted that email into this blog post is the first time I’ve really read it. Limited edition t-shirt, eh?)
Popularity: 17% [?]
Yeah, that tweaked me, too.
My favorite one of their pleas for donations was when they were attracting new donors by asking previous donors to match a new donor. I was doing this, and they required me to write a note to my match, so I wrote something about civil liberties and the economy. Much to my surprise, I got a really sweet note back from the guy near LA whose donation I matched. It made me feel good and I thought, this is a campaign that knows how to work it. Good for them. So when they say “I’ve never asked you for a donation before,” it strikes me as out of step with the brilliance of the rest of their donation requests.