DEAR MR JOHN BALI

NO, I WILL NOT "KINDLY OPEN THE ATTACHMENT FILE FOR MORE DETAILS"

(In response to:

From: MR JOHN BALI <johnbalizzz@rediff.com>
Date: 1 April 2011
Subject: PLEASE KINDLY OPEN THE ATTACHMENT FILE FOR MORE DETAILS
Attachment: FROM MR.JOHN BALI.doc <35KB>

)

Needy in Nevada

Having worked on the fundraising side of political campaigns, I've seen the importance of good lists. Lists of key supporters and donors, lists of potential donors, lists for the direct mail shop to send solicitations, etc. Once you're on a list, it's pretty hard to get off, and good lists are valuable. Campaign finance reform and other legislation makes the information about individual donors (who give more than $200/cycle) public. Between tapping public records information, or possibly being granted access to other candidate's lists, you can supplement what you already have. Needless to say, we've gotten letters from a variety of candidates, some of whom we've never given to nor signed up to support (but they got my name from somewhere...).

All that is to say, I received a letter today. A direct mail piece urging my quick action to help defeat Senator Harry Reid. To be honest, usually I just toss these right in the trash, but I hadn't received one from this candidate before so I thought I'd give it a read.

Now, I know direct mail pieces are always "urgent" and that I must "act now" to avert some disaster or help make sure the quarter ends with good fundraising numbers. And maybe I've ignored the text of past letters, but this one seemed particularly needy. Here's how it goes:

Dear [name],
If you're the Republican I've been told you are, then I need you to find your checkbook right now.

Translation: I got your name from someone else's list and I'm trying to get you to contribute via this piece of snail mail.

The letter continues [the bold is mine, the underlines and italics are from the letter]

... And I need your immediate financial support!
[...]
I need an emergency donation from you for ....
[...]
But I need your help immediately.
[...]
What I need are 1 million patriotic Americans who love this great country enought to give $25 to give Harry Reid the boot. I pray that you are one of them.

Oh, and don't forget the "sticky note" affixed to the front of the letter, printed in "handwriting" font:

I need your help to defeat Harry Reid.

I wonder if anyone has done a study of word usage in campaign fundraising direct mail solicitations. (1) Is there some science behind the number of "I needs" a letter should contain for maximum results? (2) Do political parties differ in their solicitation language (e.g., "I need" versus "Please show your support")? (3) Do people really believe the letters are as urgent as they claim to be?

And on a similar vein, (1) is direct mail fundraising effective in today's economy and/or digital age (i.e., is response suffering because most Americans have less disposable income, or is the barrier to donation [check or filling out a form with credit card information] prohibitive?), and (2) isn't the political fundraising "scene" about due a disruptive innovation of some sort?

</end random rant>

Just a year ago

I'm a little late in this post, but what's a few days, a few dollars, a few votes....

The Upside: THIS YEAR: Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, won the other evening -- as Virginia shifts back into the red (that's a good thing in politics, bad thing in balance sheets). Republican candidates for Lt. Gov and Attorney General also won.

The Flipside: LAST YEAR: After spending the end of 2007 and most of 2008 working 70-80 hours a week, and spending a few weeks in the battleground state of Colorado organizing Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) efforts -- my work became mostly for naught as then-Senator Obama won the 2008 Presidential election.

One day I'll actually have to write up this experience. In short, it was the greatest, most fun, hardest, and wildest roller coaster of a job. I made a lot of great friends -- from fellow staffers to donors to volunteers to fundraisers -- and have lots of great memories.

Since I'm not about to start my novel about my participation in the 2008 election cycle tonight, I'll leave you with some random photos that I found from circa Election Day 2008.

The title of this post and of the Picasa album come from a song my great-grandpa used to sing a song that went something like this:

I remember, last December
Just a year ago -
I went to see a show...

I can't believe it's now more than a year since the walls came a'tumblin' down. Some things haven't changed -- I still had a Halloween, complete with a witch telling a story about a broomstick.

Long live Team Surge!

I voted

Elections 2009

NPP

[[UPDATE: I've posted here some of the Facebook discussions I found humorous from the other day. Feel free to add any comments to the original thread on the document, or start a new one!]]

Dalai Lama

October 6, 2009
Front page of the " express " (a free publication of The Washington Post):

Dalai Lama in D.C. Amid White House Flap
[[Large photo, ~60% of front page]]
Caption: WELCOMED GUEST: The Dalai Lama greets spectators outside the Park Hyatt in Georgetown on Monday. The White House postponed a meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader in an apparent nod to China. It's the first time since 1991 that the Dalai Lama will not visit the White House while in Washington.

==Commentary==
At this time, I have nothing really serious to say on this matter. I'm not really sure what to think.

But, the President can add "Meet with the Dalai Lama" to the list of things he * hasn't * done (see SNL for a more complete list...).

Jeremy L. Erb
Sent from my mobile device

Funny Lady

An excerpt from the NightWatch for 23 July 2009, with links added for your enrichment:

North Korea-US: In Thailand for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, Secretary of State Clinton said today North Korea has "no friends left" to protect it from U.N. penalties, The Associated Press reported.

Clinton said the Obama administration would soon send Philip Goldberg, its coordinator for implementing the U.N. Security Council sanctions, back to Asia for a new round of consultations on a joint enforcement strategy. Clinton also said the administration intends to appoint a special envoy to focus on North Korean human rights.

North Korea’s view: The head of the North Korean delegation said North Korea would not return to six-party talks with the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia about its nuclear weapons program because of the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States.

He also responded to Clinton's remarks earlier in the week when she likened North Korea's recent spate of missile launches to an unruly child demanding attention.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement that said her remarks "suggest she is by no means intelligent. … We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community. Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. It is our view that she can make even a little contribution to the implementation of the U.S. administration's foreign policy as Secretary of State only when she has understanding of the world, to begin with."

[...]

Comment: The level of exchange today devolved into name calling and farce. Farcical exchanges between powerful countries do not seem conducive to peace. No US diplomat of any rank should ever insult a country with whom the US is at war; which has a million-man standing army that has prepared for war for more than 50 years; and has demonstrated at least a vestigial nuclear weapons capability, unless the US is baiting that country into a war.

The good news is that the North did not vilify or demonize “Mrs. Clinton”, as they called her instead of Secretary Clinton. It is a significant insult that shows the North Korea does not take Secretary Clinton seriously as a power player in policy formation. However, it does not portend escalation. On the other hand, she and her staff no longer have credibility in any future negotiations with North Korea.

Well, the Secretary of State is losing face with a country that we'd really like to keep an eye on (and keep in line), and so we're going to send a former US ambassador who was expelled** from Bolivia -- I'm sure his fluent Spanish, experience dealing with Columbians, South Africans, and Bolivians, and his upbringingin in Boston, have prepared him to deal effectively with the North Koreans.

**I don't know the story behind this, maybe I'm reading too much into it. Can anyone fill me in?