The Republicans Continue to Astonish

This extraordinary fundraising success is being covered with glee (and disdain) in the print and broadcast media. Every time a Bush-Cheney commercial runs, it’s covered on cable and network news along with John Kerry’s rejoinder.

In ordinary times, this exorbitant wad of dough would totally swamp the democrats. But this is a very different environment, and we’re looking at the most interesting presidential campaign in my lifetime. Consider the following: John F. Kennedy announced he was a candidate for president on Jan. 2, 1960, and didn’t have the nomination in his pocket until the convention in Los Angeles in July. Kerry had the nomination by March of this year. Bush 41 didn’t mention Bill Clinton by name until July. President Clinton didn’t mention Bob Dole by name until August. By March of this year, the candidates and their operatives already were firing verbal bazookas at one another daily.

And in the mail?
So what are the republicans mailing these days? In the Who’s Mailing What! Archive of direct mail I found the most extraordinary mailing I’ve seen from a presidential campaign in my 20 years of watching the mail. Why extraordinary? Because Bush-Cheney ‘04 has stolen a long-term control from the Republican National Committee — a personalized mailing received for months — nine different times, in fact — with the following lead:

“Dear [NAME]:
I don’t want to believe you’ve abandoned the Republican Party, but I have to ask … have you given up?”

In February of this year came a mailing from Bush-Cheney ‘04 with the following lead:

“Dear [NAME]:
I don’t believe you’ve abandoned President Bush and his re-election, but I have to ask … have you given up?”

Imagine! Bush-Cheney ‘04 is so disinterested in direct mail — and so lazy and sated with money — that it swiped copy from the RNC, sending essentially the same mailing to the same list at the same time. This is unheard of! Seems like nothing more than a shameful exercise in list cleaning.