Gov. Howard Dean has been crossing my radar more and more recently. As it turns out, in addition to his official site, his campaign has an official weblog active (the first time a Presidential candidate has had any form of weblog, as far as I know), and there is also a privately run ‘Howard Dean in 2004’ weblog active.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on all of these sites, and — in a first for me — I’m seriously considering making my first ever campaign contribution. The boilerplate for the contribution request letter follows (slightly edited)…
(Via Tom Negrino and Rick Klau in the comments to Tom’s post)
I’m ~~writing all my friends on my email list~~ [posting this message on my website]{.underline} because there is something that is very important to me personally and should be important to the country. [From what I’ve seen so far,]{.underline} Howard Dean is the only candidate running for President who says what he thinks, and acts on what he says. I think he’s dead on, and he’s the only candidate making sense about foreign policy, [and probably]{.underline} health care and fiscal responsibility[, I just need to read more about those before I’m sure]{.underline}. I also think he can win [(though, admittedly, at the rate Bush is going, soon enough people will realize how much of a goob he is that the pretzel he almost choked to death on would be able to win — but I’ll still take Dean over Bush, the pretzel, or anyone else I’ve heard from so far)]{.underline}. If you don’t know about him, visit his website, read his speeches, and ~~call~~ [e-mail]{.underline} me if you want to talk about it.
I [think that I]{.underline} want ~~you~~ to get involved and contribute to his campaign. He doesn’t have the deep pockets of most of the other candidates, but I believe he will make the best president — and I ~~don’t want money to~~ [wish that money didn’t]{.underline} decide who leads this country.
Even if this is the first time you have heard of him, or if you are unsure about your support, your donation at this time will allow his voice to be heard. Please help me and others take the big money out of politics. Please contribute whatever you can — \$10.01 [(like me, since I don’t have much to spare right now)]{.underline} to \$1000.01 (a penny for the internet) — and pass it on to your friends who might be interested. Every dollar you give up to \$250 will be matched (this is only true if you tell the campaign your employer and occupation). Feel free to modify this letter [(not that anyone would do something like that, of course)]{.underline}. Do it now [dammit]{.underline}! March 31^st^ is the big FEC deadline, and we are running out of time to show the power of early netroots support.
Contribute at Dean’s website.
I [think that I]{.underline} feel so strongly about this that I’ve [kind of]{.underline} decided to take the time to ask for money for the campaign, and I hope you will also take the time to make a contribution. I’m [becoming]{.underline} convinced that if we do this, Howard will never let us down.
Thanks for considering this.
PS: If you want to get more involved, visit Howard Dean’s Call To Action blog.
(Disclaimer: The above edits are in no way meant to make fun of or belittle Howard Dean or his campaign — as I said above, I’m very strongly considering making a donation myself, and I do believe that it’s worth considering. However, as I’m still mulling it over, and can’t ever seem to quite completely kill my [possibly overly-]cynical sense of humor, I had to make my mark. So sue me.)