You've Got Mail!!!

According to an article in today's Washington Post, the Obama campaign, whose email network exceeds ten million people, is working on a number of plans to change their web presence into an ongoing tool to inform as well as persuade. I found two comments in the article particularly interesting --

" The (email) list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign..."

I don't believe I'd have liked finding out that my contributions to and support of the Obama campaign made my contact information a commodity to be sold at will. I can get that kind of callous treatment anywhere.

"Accordingly, the president-elect's http://www.change.gov transition Web site features a blog and a suggestion form, signaling the kinds of direct and instantaneous interaction that the Obama administration will encourage, perhaps with an eye toward turning its following into the biggest special-interest group in Washington. Once Obama is sworn in, those backers may be summoned to push reluctant members of Congress to support legislation, to offer feedback on initiatives and to enlist in administration-supported causes in local communities. Obama would also be positioned to ask his supporters to back his favored candidates with fundraising and turnout support in the 2010 midterm elections."

I don't care too much for that idea, either. If they're using it to inform me about things that I've said I care about, or tell me generally what they're doing; cool. It's when it becomes the Voice of the Government that it sounds... scary. (I put it to my Bush filter: How would I feel if Bush did this? And the instant result was: Pissed off as all hell.")

Ding!