Obama Gets My Attention

Has a presidential campaign ever sent an e-mail from the candidate with the subject line: "Hey"? And signing off with his first name? (Update: Yes -- Chris Dodd has, using U-Stream technology ... so Obama is borrowing another Doddnovation.)

Comments

Yes, this has been done before.

Chris Dodd did this yesterday. Zack Exley notes the break-through nature of the email from Dodd on the Huffington Post. Exley has the full text of email from Chris in his Huffington Post piece.

Posted by Matt Browner Hamlin | September 28, 2007 12:42 PM

Back in the good old days of direct-mail (not yet over I hope), our goal was to make any appeal as personal as possible. Handwritten notes and address forms, etc... The goal was to create a personal connection between candidate and donor without having the candidate there physically. It worked for a while until autopens, laser printers, and handwriting fonts got cheap and everyone and their sister began sending these type of messages.

This, as well as the Dodd piece (thanks Dodd Blog spam guy!), certainly seem more authentic than the usual double spaced, bolded, P.S. e-mail solicitation, but I don't think anyone buys that Barack actually shot this one off from his Blackberry in between stump speeches. But maybe I'm just a cynic, who knows?

Posted by willie | September 28, 2007 12:57 PM

It really does seem like Obama saw what Dodd did and copied it. That's not a bad thing though - not being too proud to copy a good thing is an admirable trait. :-)

Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2007 12:59 PM

Isn't this the lure of Obama? A fresh face and casual style. Or am I reading way too much into this?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Posted by Matt | September 28, 2007 12:59 PM

Obama is a charismatic man who would be an inspiring Vice President. The President has to be Al Gore. Thats what Germans say on www.algore2008.de
Wouldn't that be a sort of dream team?
Cheers, Simon

Posted by Simon | September 28, 2007 1:06 PM

I find Obama to be boring. In the debates when he talked I almost fell asleep. Elect Obama and put americans to sleep. I think he seems to be a good person, but he should stay a senator.

Posted by rssrai | September 28, 2007 1:58 PM

So that's how he's outraised every other candidate--stealing their fundraising ideas. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Posted by keith | September 28, 2007 3:17 PM

Kudos to the staffer that thought of it first. Hands down, the personal, low-key email can be effective.

Posted by Wona | September 29, 2007 9:25 PM