The Permanent Campaign Amuses

As you know, I'm on Barack Obama's campaign e-mail list, just for fun.  From time to time, they send out campaign messages (it's a permanent campaign for them, remember) asking for more money, usually demonizing Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, or the eeeeeevil bitter-clinger-mobster sect of which I am a proud member.  These messages usually amuse me because they are spinning so fast and loose with the truth that they would make a gyroscope envious.

The most recent of these e-mails made me chuckle more than usual.  See if you can see why:

Friend --

"Republicans win back House, Senate." "Voters reject Obama's agenda."

If you listen to the talking heads on TV, it's like November 3rd's headlines are already written.

But here's what they don't know -- and it's why they're dead wrong: The same grassroots movement that knocked on the most doors, made the most calls, and inspired the most first-time voters in history in 2008 hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, we're gearing up to do it all again.

You heard it from the President on Monday. We've been planning for the fall campaign all year. And we know full well that winning nationally means organizing locally. Every House district holds an election this year, and all but five states will vote statewide for a governor or senator.

We need to get moving in MO -- and all over the country -- earlier than ever before. David Plouffe and I have taken a hard look at the numbers, and we need 8 donations from [my city] by May 1st to kick off our efforts.

Please donate $5 or more to help us get more boots on the ground and start implementing our 2010 grassroots strategy now.

My first thought: I haven't seen any of these headlines, nor anything remotely resembling those headlines.  Sure, there has been plenty of analysis comparing the conditions leading up to 1994 -- when Dems were slaughtered -- and current conditions, but the adoring media probably won't even write headlines like that after it's actually happened (it'll be more along the lines of "GOP Cheats, Steals Election", or some such nonsense).  My second thought is that yes, that 2008 grassroots movement has gone somewhere: across the aisle.  They've lost all the major demographics but the youth -- and now they're losing them, too -- and their base's enthusiasm is nowhere near that of the GOP base.  But go ahead and keep calling out the rallying cry to the great big empty room, if it'll help you feel better.

Aside from all that, though, what really made me chuckle is that last bit - they need 8 donations -- each one a whopping $5 -- in order to put more 'boots on the ground' in my corner of the world.  Really?  A whole $40 would do it?  Well, gee, where's George Soros when you need him?  I assume this form e-mail would have a lot more impact in a major city or zip code, where they're asking for thousands of donations and millions of dollars.  Or, at the very least, it wouldn't look like a half-baked e-mail scam from Nigeria.

Or Kenya...

There's my two cents.