Obama, What's With the Spam?

Okay, Senator Obama, I get it. You need money. The GOP and McCain campaign have a lot of cash. This is the most important election of our lifetimes. It's crunchtime, and every last dollar counts. Blah blah blah.

But seriously, Senator, what is with the spam?

My liberal and independent friends (i.e. your supporters) have been complaining to me about the ridiculous emails you're sending. You're supposed to be the candidate who understands the Internet. You've raised more money online than any candidate in history. You have a technology plan with some pretty innovative ideas.

So I'd think you'd realize that people hate getting spammed with useless messages. Yet your campaign is sending cheesy, quasi-personal emails ghostwritten on behalf of your wife, your running mate, your spokesman, your national phone bank coordinator, even your chief financial officer. Last week, you sent four email blasts in a 24-hour period about the midnight Thursday (Oct. 23) deadline -- the time when you would "make the last, tough choices about where we can fight -- and how hard."

And then, lo and behold, you continued to send daily emails asking for more money. As one frustrated donor friend half-joked in an email, "Stop harassing me, dammit!! I voted for change, not for Greenpeace!"

With an election next week, I understand your urgency, but hasn't the little campaign finance boy cried wolf enough already? You had the cash on hand to buy thirty minutes of airtime on seven broadcast and cable networks, along with last-minute ad time in Republican strongholds of Arizona, Georgia, and North Dakota.

Senator, please, it is time to stop begging. You're a proponent of campaign finance reform, right? Here's a good first step: stop the spam. At this point, if your supporters want to kick in one last dime, they'll do it -- as long as you don't annoy the hell out of them first.

Comments

[radnip]

I don't get any emails. I hate spam so I don't sign up. That doesn't stop McCain and the Repugs, but so far I haven't had to "spam" anything from Obama and the Dems cause I don't get any.

I get my news myself.

[Last-LiberalRepublicans]

Ryan Blitstein, THIS IS THE WORST article ALL Election Season! I built many Websites and ALL good websites email comes with a UNSUBSCRIBED link. Just Click On That If You Do NOT want anymore emails / Newsletter from that source! It is that simple! I hope you did complain the same way with junk mails/creditcard offers fludding your mail box every day of the week, you cant UNSUBSCRIBE from that one! That is TRUE SPAM!!

[keepacoolhead]

I get the same email. I press the delete button if I don't want to donate. Done.

[LaughingLast]

I, for one, appreciate the emails, because it has kept me donating and volunteering. If I had taken myself off their lists back in March when I made my first donation, I would probably have stopped giving money then. Same goes with the volunteering. I think these emails keep up our sense of urgency.

Just look at the results. It must be working.

[mightyhead]

I'd like to see some emails after he's president. The fireside chat is so 20th century. Something like, this is what I'm trying to get done this week - this is what I'm up against - this is how an average American help.

State of the Union spam, mmm.....

[XME]

So unsubscribe...or complain to the campaign!

[rockitt]

it's not spam if you signed up for it. Don't like, unsubscribe.

[ThirdSection]

I think the emails could be done better. It's good there's an unsubscribe link, but an "I already donate" link and a "I've already been volunteering" link would be welcome additions.

I would especially like to see this in all those emails I've received from moveon.org, which have been exhorting me to volunteer in my community for the campaign, something I've been doing since February!

[craigary]

I think that's a good point, for people who are already volunteering they should have a better system for taking you off the "please volunteer" lists. I can see that in particular being annoying.

[JayInDallas]

ThirdSection, something like your post would have made a better article than Ryans'. My dad used to say, "don't pose the problem, without proposing the solution." I'm sure that the Obama campaign is open to useful, constructive advice like yours. Just like LastLiberal, I have also built sites. A couple of extra buttons that help facilitate the management of my email campaign would be welcome additions.

[loveHP]

Oh, c'mon. If you're really concerned about the outcome of this election, what are a few extra e-mails? Look what's at stake here. And don't forget, we still have the Repugnant dirty tricks and vote stealing to worry about. Rather than be offended, appreciate the fact that the campaign is doing all it can to assure we don't continue to suffer the incompetence we've suffered the last eight years.

[PixelMarx]

Personally I say, quit whining. You can always unsubscribe to the email.

Another thing I do with the email requests - if I get 5 in a day - then I can see they are really trying to make some numbers and keep the campaign going strong - I give. If I only get one then it seems not that urgent and I ignore them. It's way to monitor the urgency meter.

[craigary]

I have a better idea. People who are irritated by this can wait til after Nov 4 and then never have to receive another one of these emails again. If they don't want to or can't give any more, it's pretty easy to delete the emails.

There are other things people can do to help their campaign, too, volunteering at local offices, phone banking, helping with voting information and so on.

Whining about getting a few more of these emails for a few more days seems like a lot of wasted space about nothing.