I live in Illinois and therefore have been spared all of the "vote for me" literature from the Presidential candidates. Of course, I routinely get Obama campaign mail; that is not a surprise since I am on a "recurring donation" program.
But what I got in the mail this past Friday surprised me:
Yes, it was from the Romney campaign, and yes it was a request for money.
More below the fold...
I tried to think where they got my name. I can think of two places:
1. Some time ago, I subscribed to The American Conservative, which was one of the few anti-Iraq war magazines out there at the time and
2. During the Illinois primary, I gave "Crazy Rick" (Santorum) a tiny donation; I wanted so much to see Mitt Romney humiliated in Illinois. It didn't quite work out.
My guess: "2" was the reason I got on the roll.
I opened the letter and read:
"Dear Ollie, I am running for President of the United States and because you are one of America's most notable Republicans, I want to personally tell you why."[...]
I had one of the greatest laughs of my life!
But when I thought about it further, I thought about the mail I routinely get from the Democrats (at all levels). The theme is almost uniformly: "we don't have all of the ultra wealthy donors like the Republicans do, so we need grass roots support...that is, people like you." That is, no Democrat has ever sold me as being someone extra special; I always got the "we are in this together" message from them!
There is a stark difference in tone, isn't there?
The professionals in the Romney campaign have "me" pegged as a Santorum supporter; kind of like the fellow in suspenders:
That is, someone they want to court. But see how "notable" they find me if I want to attend one of their 50K per plate fundraisers. :-)
I suppose that is their dilemma, isn't it? They have a confederation between those millionaire hedge fund managers who think that their taxes are too high with a group who thinks that the US would be just fine if the US of A would just "return to Jesus".
I suppose it is the latter group that they think will respond to being buttered up.