Team McCain struggling in email-land
Dante Chinni
Posted: 07.18.2008 / 7:00 AM EDT
One of the easiest ways to break down the technical aptitudes and attitudes of 21st century Americans is to separate the people who e-mail because they like to from those who e-mail because they have to.
As the 2008 presidential race moves forward, it becomes more clear to Patchwork Nation that Barack Obama’s campaign resides in the first group and John McCain’s is in the second.
To monitor the messages the campaigns are sending and to whom, Patchwork Nation created e-mail accounts for pseudovoters in each of our 11 communities in February and signed up with the McCain and Obama websites.
In previous posts, Patchwork Nation has noted the Obama team’s concerted e-mail efforts. Equally obvious is how far behind the McCain camp is in the e-mail game, at least so far.
This latest batch of e-mails is from June 26 to today. McCain and his surrogates show they are beginning to employ more sophisticated targeting methods.The McCain team, for instance, seems to recognize that they have a sympathetic ear from our virtual supporter in Hopkinsville, Ky. That McCain fan, who lives in a town tied closely to a military base (“Military Bastion”) received a special e-mail July 17 announcing the relaunch of the “McCain Aces” fundraising group.“ ‘McCain Aces’ recognizes those of you who are generously supporting John McCain’s campaign,” the e-mail says. Donating $25 would add the supporter’s name to McCain’s “virtual wall” of like-minded givers.
Of all the e-mails Patchwork Nation’s pseudovoters received from McCain, “Aces” was the only one that was semitargeted, or aimed at a group of people. Even though some of McCain’s messages were aimed at specific states, some clumsiness was evident in the outreach.
Our Sioux Center, Iowa, supporter received an e-mail about organizing the state tomorrow (Super Saturday!), a day that the e-mail noted was “January 19th.” In Clermont, Fla., our McCainiac received a special “McCain 2008 Florida Weekly update” on July 2 about happenings in the Sunshine State. The subsequent two weeks, however, brought no further updates.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Team McCain was playing up former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Mr. Romney’s father, George, was a two-term governor in Michigan in the 1960s. “McCain Headquarters Grand Opening with Gov. Mitt Romney!,” one e-mail blares.
For its part, Obama’s e-mail-targeting machine keeps rolling along.
Our Ann Arbor pseudovoter, who informed the Obama campaign he is gay in a questionnaire, received an e-mail with the subject line: “Photos: LGBT Pride events.” (LGBT is short for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transsexual.) Inside the e-mail from early July, Obama (or his digital equivalent) thanks the supporter for the impact the campaign made during LGBT “Pride month” (June). The e-mail goes on to offer an “Obama Pride T-shirt,” featuring the Obama “O” logo with a rainbow underneath, for a $30 donation.This latest round of e-correspondence also hints at which states the Obama campaign is paying most attention to. Our pseudosupporters in Clermont, Fla., Sioux Center, Iowa, and Los Alamos, N.M., all received special e-mails about organizing events. Florida, Iowa, and New Mexico all narrowly went for President Bush in 2004 and are expected to be battleground states again in 2008.
The most interesting e-mail to land in our inboxes had the subject line: “Our platform.” The July 8 message, which all our pseudovoters received, outlines the Obama campaign’s plans to open up the Democratic platform discussion to everyone.“For two weeks in July, people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities to discuss the issues and share their input,” the e-mail says. “The outcome of these meetings will be reviewed by the Drafting Committee as it creates the final Platform.”
From July 19 to July 27, numerous meetings will be held throughout the country, judging from the links the Obama campaign provides. For instance, 50 of them will be within 150 miles of Philadelphia. In fact, anyone can “create” a “Listening to America” event by registering with Obama’s campaign website.
What will come of the effort is anyone’s guess. Party platforms are notorious for being a list of professed beliefs that have little real-world meaning. But for a campaign that prides itself on listening to its supporters, it is at least a nice bit of marketing.The platform meetings already have one big supporter, conservative radio demigod Rush Limbaugh.
He’s encouraging his listeners to visit random “Listening to America” events as part of his plan he calls: “Operation Chaos Phase II.” “You will be called upon once again to serve your country as you did so brilliantly this past spring on another mission, delivering more chaos to the Democratic Party at their own invitation,” Mr. Limbaugh recently told his listeners.
It’s hard to measure how the first phase of “Operaton Chaos,” went down after Limbaugh encouraged his fans to cross party lines and vote in Democratic primaries this spring. But at the very least, Obama’s latest effort gives the host something to talk about.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:42 am EDT
Isn’t freedom of speech wonderful? Even evil people like Rush are allowed their say.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:27 am EDT
Who cares about emails?? Recently I’ve noticed more and more attention to emails, blogs and websites somehow having an affect on campaigns. All this technology doesn’t help because people in this country are so hot and bothered by all the hype that they don’t stop to actually “listen” to the candidates. Obama knows this and hopes that all the hype and phoney excitement he’s generated over absolutely nothing will keep him from having to answer the really tough questions. It’s very sad that such a large chunk of the American population can be tricked this easily.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:35 am EDT
Well, the GOP, manipulated, tricked and lied to us into supporting/backing the IRAQ WAR, we will never, EVER forget or forgive that.
It’s time for a new direction.
Bill Gibron
July 18th, 2008 at 9:03 am EDT
This dovetails very nicely into a discussion about the new demographics of the American voting public. Recently, we’ve seen that people are splitting on new lines. Those who did well under Clinton and the .com boom break heavily for Obama. Those who feel left behind, who lost their jobs in manufacturing or simply don’t feel comfortable with technology break heavily for McCain. It’s not a surprise to see that the Internet candidate uses the Internet well. It’s also not surprising that the candidate who doesn’t use a computer isn’t leveraging email well.
The question McCain supporters need to ask themselves is how the US is going to compete in the world market without embracing the new technologies that we developed. Is another 8 years of fear mongering with no economic or developmental progress really what you want? Even if you feel uncomfortable voting for the Democrats, can you overcome your feelings for the good of the nation?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:15 am EDT
Maybe Team McCain can also educate their followers on what email is appropriate to forward to others. Unfortunately, mis/disinformation emails continue to make the rounds (Quran 9.11, Obama is a radical muslim, Obama as antiChrist, ad nauseum), all of which have been proven false by Snopes, Truth or Fiction, Urban Legends, etc. If the outlandish hoaxes being spread on the internet had merit, they would be verified and shown on the major news outlets/newspapers (not sure if Fox verifies news that doesn’t conform to its views). I do not agree with Rush Chaos Limbaugh but I listen to him occasionally in the hope that maybe, just maybe he will say something that has been proven truthful, not his chaotic version of the truth. So get your act together Team McCain, discourage the forwarding of email hoaxes, and I may read your emails.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am EDT
Of course McCain is strugling in email land. What do you expect from someone who is computer illiterate? If he wants to get on the internet, Cindy has to do it for him. He is much too old, and set in his ways to learn anything new. Conservatives are the most unscientific of all.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am EDT
The dude is 70. Of course he has email problems.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pm EDT
McCain has stated several times, that he doesn’t use a computer. Unfortunately, this is the computer age - especially since 2000, with the dot.com/dot.bomb explosion/implosions. The RNC is a bit behind the times, along with their candidate. However, the DNC, in general, is close to the RNC as it relates to using technology. Only Obama has embraced the technology and learned to wield it fairly effectively.
This is yet another reason, his campaign has taken off so well. He understands the things needed to get there, using the best tools available. Unfortunately, knowing how to enter the office doesn’t mean you know how to run the office.
Having great ideas without an implementation plan is about like the IBM commercial - where the team presents a large plan and after reading it - ’sounds great, but can we really do this?’ - and the answer is a resounding no. We don’t have the resources, time or technology [not ready yet] to succeed with implementation.
So far, few details on how he’s going to accomplish his ideas, let alone pay for them without sending the country to the poor house, borrowing more money instead of paying what we owe. We need to slow down spending, don’t divert funds from the war to pay for new things - when we clearly can’t afford to pay for the war, to start with.
Yes we need technology - but Ted, the Uni-bomber had a point - technology really is part of the problem, as it can also be part of the solution. We need to use the tools as tools, and know we also need interaction with real people. It’s the people, not the computers that the candidates need to work with.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm EDT
Tim says:
The dude is 70. Of course he has email problems.
my day is 83, works well around computers and email.
McCain is the old guy because of who he his…not just his age. I am voting for the youngest brain in the race.
We need it.
All of us.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm EDT
I just can’t bring myself to vote for McCain. He’s a liar, adulterer, gambler and he’s shown that he’s in politics just for the money. I would place a write in vote for my cat first.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:11 pm EDT
Hey, Mitt Romney us back? For people who rightfully purged Mitt from their brains after he dropped out of the race, a quick refresher course:
http://www.236.com/news/2008/07/17/americas_ken_doll_is_back_and_7798.php
July 19th, 2008 at 2:51 am EDT
Why is it not more publically understood that weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) were in Iraq . The role of
bribery involved in trying to hide that is explained
clearly in “Sadam’s Secrets” by Georges Hormuz Sada.
Where is the media on that. Very few remember why we
went to Iraq, and very few seem to know that reality
of the WMD that were there . This revelation has been hidden and much world
thought is reluctant to give up its preference for the fantasy that
there were not WMD. Of course there were. No one wants to go to war, but lets get real. There were WMD. It is well documented, but strangely avoided by the media.
July 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm EDT
What do you expect from this old dude. He will never know how to communicate online and that is someone you want to put him in the WH. Its your own problem. Lets do some thing now. OBAMA 08
July 19th, 2008 at 10:29 pm EDT
Casperson:
This talk about the existence of WMD in Iraq sounds similar to the discussion as it happened before the war. Many experts said there were no WMD. The CIA has agents telling the president the information he was acting on was incorrect. Area experts said that estimates of his programs were highly exaggerated. All these voices got shut out so the president could start a war that he already decided was going to happen. Now, after the fact, the same thing is happening with this revisionist history.
The overwhelming majority of research supports the idea that there were no WMD and that the “evidence” the president used to justify the war was information he knew to be unreliable. You are doing the same thing when you decide that a single book written by a single insider has the whole truth. But this is highly unlikely. The one true thing about the Saddam Hussein regime is that nobody knew what was really going on but Saddam himself. That’s how brutal dictators hold onto power. You are cherry-picking the facts that suit the way you want to believe. This is exactly the mistake the president made. Read a dozen mainstream books on the subject without deciding what you believe first. Then let us know what you think.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:18 pm EDT
WMD is NOT a Bush thing. Read Clinton’s speech on his justification for bombing Iraq in 1998:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html
See how easily you could substitute Bush for Clinton? There were LOTS of people who were screaming WMD, including UN weapons inspectors. Here’s some others who were supportive of the idea that Iraq did have WMDs:
http://www.rightwingnews.com/quotes/demsonwmds.php
July 21st, 2008 at 1:22 am EDT
No doubt many people assumed he had WMD before the run-up to the war. I do not dispute this. But also note that Clinton did not decide the best course of action was to invade Iraq. Perhaps this was because he didn’t feel the evidence was compelling enough, or more likely that even if an invasion was justified, it would not serve our interests in the long run. I think hindsight would prove that such reasoning was sound. Instead, he focused on other security threats like trying to eliminate Osama Bin Laden with missile strikes. I would also point out that the right accused him of doing this only to distract from the Lewinski scandal and made the claim that the threat was not real. We all know how that turned out…
But all that is beside the point. My issue here is that like president Bush’s ignoring evidence that contradicted what he wanted he wanted to hear, some people posting on this board also seem to be awfully selective in the facts they use to support what they already want to believe. It is a trend I find very disturbing in political discourse of this country, because it is not really discourse at all.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:57 am EDT
Thanks for your suggestions