I recently ordered some Obama ’08 stickers… not so much for placing on my own property, but mainly to place on the property of those that despise the man (i.e. a co-worker here in my office). And while I missed the joy of seeing his face when he first noticed the sticker on his office door, I did learn something from the process: even the Obama campaign isn’t using the internet properly.
I knew the McCain camp would be reliant on the older forms of communication, due in large part to the fact that McCain once had a phone number that consisted of a single digit. Zing! But I expected the staffers of the young, hip Obama to be a bit more on top of the new ‘internets.’
Their email correspondence leaves much to be desired. Take a gander:
The initial letter:
Obama for America
Dear Name Removed to Protect the Innocent –
Barack recorded a special video invitation for you to join him at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Watch it now and make a donation of $5 or more before midnight this Thursday, July 31st, and you could go backstage with Barack:
https://donate.barackobama.com/backstage
Exactly one month from today, on the last night of the Democratic National Convention, more than 75,000 people will come together in the largest stadium in Denver to be part of history.
Barack is opening up the convention and his acceptance speech to as many people as possible. Supporters like you are responsible for building this movement and for bringing this campaign so far — and Barack wants you to be part of this important moment.
Free tickets will be available soon, but if you make a donation in any amount this month, you could be one of 10 supporters selected to meet Barack backstage before he delivers his speech.
If you make a donation by midnight this Thursday, July 31st, you and a guest could be flown to Denver, spend a couple of nights in a hotel, participate in the convention, and then go backstage with Barack before the big event.
Watch this short video and make a donation of $5 or more today to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:
https://donate.barackobama.com/backstage
The Democratic National Convention is going to be an exciting and important event for this movement and for our country. I hope you will be there to join us.
Thanks,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
None of the links in the email worked (the real address is here), so I replied back:
David,
The video links in your recent email did not work… What the dilly yo?
Thanks.
Maybe that’s not exactly what I said, but moving on…
The response:
Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting Senator Barack Obama and Obama for America.
Barack is gratified by the overwhelming response to his candidacy, and we appreciate hearing from you. Please note, though, that we are now replying only to emails sent through our webform. You may resend your message through the webform here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/
We also encourage you to submit your policy ideas through the My Policy feature of our website, here:
We have also created the Answer Center, an easy-to-search database of questions and answers that lets you find information on a wide range of subjects from volunteering to policy positions. Try it out here:
http://answercenter.barackobama.com
The webform and other technologies help improve our ability to communicate with you and efficiently read and respond to the thousands of messages we receive every week. Please note that you can use it to cut and paste large messages and links to other websites.
Thank you for using the webform, it helps us improve the process of communicating with you.
Sincerely,
Obama for America
——————————
Paid for by Obama for America
A canned response? ‘Dear Friend’? ‘The’? One of the growing tremors in American politics today is the distance between politicians and the people they represent, and the fresh face in politics sends a generic reply?
But wait… Not all is lost…
-The links worked in the reply letter
-The Obama campaign has something called the Answer Center, a seemingly great concept of FAQ for the masses. (Take that, McCain ’08 ‘Telegraph to Tallahassee’ project!)
My favorite question from the Answer Center?
Is Senator Obama a Christian?
AKA
I’m mildly retarded and believe most everything I hear; Is Senator Obama a non-Muslim?
