Sunday, November 09, 2008
I'll miss my e-mail pen pals
Dan Radmacher
Recent columns
- Kaine saw much progress in his four years
- Virginia voted for gridlock on Tuesday
- Project Vote Smart tries to educate Virginia voters
- America should listen to this Cassandra
From the RoundTable blog
Dear Barack, Michelle, John, Cindy, Sarah and Joe:
First, let me thank you for all your help and encouragement during this long, difficult campaign. Whenever I began to doubt that one person could make a difference, there you were in my e-mail in-box, telling me how much I mattered and how much you needed me.
It was incredibly affirming, and it made me feel so special to be on a first-name basis with all of you. How many other Americans got such constant, personal e-mail contact from the two major party candidates for president, their vice presidential nominees and even their wives?
I even got encouraging e-mails from your campaign managers.
I'm not talking about press releases and talking points and the kind of official e-mails I've been getting as an editorial page editor since I've had e-mail.
These were different. They were personal. They spoke to me. I felt like Sally Field at the Oscars: "You like me, you really like me."
Of course, when they gave the Oscar to Sally, no one asked her for a donation. With all these e-mails, there was always at least one request for an urgent donation. It almost made me feel like my friendship was for sale.
But I still felt bad not being able to pony up, not even a little. Those pesky ethics standards prevent journalists from donating to candidates. Otherwise, really, John, I would have. You, too, Barack. I would have spread a little wealth around if I could have.
Really, it made me feel ungrateful and discourteous. Sarah took time to write me right after her vice presidential debate, after all. Though I never felt quite the love from you, Sarah, that I got from all the rest. Barack, John, Joe, Cindy and Michelle all addressed me as Dan. With Sarah, all I ever got was, "Dear Supporter." Was it something I said?
Anyway, thanks for all the e-mails. It was great getting to know you, and I look forward to continuing this rich correspondence now that the election is over.
Hello? Hello?
n n n
OK, so no one expects sincerity or is shocked by artifice in a political e-mail. But the longer the campaign went on, the more grating I found this intrusion into my personal e-mail. I didn't sign up for any of it. I never gave a political campaign a dime, much less my e-mail address.
Speaking of artifice, my favorite e-mail of the campaign was from Rick Davis, Sen. John McCain's campaign manager. It was a lengthy email attempting to explain why the race wasn't over, the polls were tightening, victory was in grasp, yadda, yadda, yadda.
One section was titled, "Obama campaign faces tremendous structural challenges in the final days of the campaign." The final point in that section discussed how Barack Obama had been expanding the field in recent days. Inexplicably, this was touted as a bad sign for the Obama campaign.
"Obama is running out of states if you follow out a traditional model. Today, he expanded his buy into North Dakota, Georgia and Arizona in an attempt to widen the playing field and find his 270 electoral votes. This is a very tall order and trying to expand into new states in the final hours shows he doesn't have the votes to win."
I don't know what that first sentence even means. Obama was running out of states? He seemed to have plenty by the time the night ended Tuesday. Anyway, the notion that expanding his ad buys into new states in the final days of the campaign, including McCain's home state of Arizona, showed "he doesn't have the votes to win" has to take the prize for the most shameless spin of the entire campaign.
Finally, I'd like to recognize the graciousness of McCain's concession speech. He appealed to the best in Americans and urged his supporters to work with President-elect Obama to better the nation.
McCain was heavily criticized for the dishonorable campaign he ran, and justly so. But he did the right thing Tuesday night.
Of course, his own supporters booed at the very mention of Obama's name.
I think if McCain had campaigned with the same honor with which he conceded and offered a positive vision for how he would govern -- and if he had made a responsible choice for his vice presidential nominee -- then this could have been a very different race, and it might have even had a different outcome.
We will, of course, never know. What we do know is that McCain sacrificed his honor and his integrity in a vain pursuit. A gracious concession speech cannot erase that -- especially when his supporters' boos are there to remind exactly what kind of campaign he engaged in.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
