That's so cool.
I've still amazed by the campaign Obama's managed to put together. The grass roots level is unlike anything I've ever seen before, and exceeds every campaign I've volunteered for in the past in just about every aspect.

And, on the other side, there's this article about the GOP's failures at the grass roots level. I don't really think it's because the race is that far out of balance- it is still really close in a lot of key states. It's just strange. It seemed like there was a lot more on the ground for W four years ago than I'm seeing now.

whew....I thought this was another rickroll stunt.

One of the pre-keynoters at the DNC (Tom Harkin?) came out on stage with an interpreter -- and signed to the crowd while she spoke his greeting (they then switched). I thought it was a fantastic gesture.
</bleeding heart>

Well, he was a community organizer, after all. ^_^

Love him or hate him, if you deny he's run one of the smartest and most forward-thinking campaigns in US history, then you're either not paying attention or drinking the haterade. Dude even has his own shiny iPhone app. His is the first major US political campaign that really gets the internet.

His is the first major US political campaign that really gets the internet.

Through work, I got an emailed a marketing analysis of both campaigns' email strategies. It basically gave them both Fs. Lemme see if I can track the article down...

Ah. The article's here, though it requires a free registration to read. The gist:

Both parties have embraced email as a communication strategy, but it seems they are abysmally poor at executing based on today’s best practices. Neither presidential candidate has effectively mastered email communication; in some cases, they are using it illegally.

The author complains that neither campaign uses a consistent "From" email address; that neither campaign seems to coordinate among all email senders, which means that recipients end up with several unrelated messages a day sometimes; that neither campaign seems to target their messages to their audience very well (sending the entire list an email about one state, for example); and CAN-SPAM violations:

The same politicians who brought us CAN-SPAM have decided it does not apply to them. The recent FTC ruling on the unsubscribe process is clear: an email recipient “cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her email address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply email message or visiting a single internet web page to opt-out of receiving future email from a sender.”

The biggest violator of this policy is the Democratic party. To unsubscribe from their emails, you must go to a Web page that sends a specific numeric code to you via email. You must enter that email code in the browser form on the page that sends you the email with the code. Unfortunately, the code can take hours to arrive in your inbox, and if you have left the page or closed your browser, you cannot unsubscribe. This is a CAN-SPAM violation.

Not to be outdone, the McCain camp requires a reason for unsubscribing, ranging from “I’m still a McCain supporter, I just don’t want to receive email” to “I’m no longer a McCain supporter.”

Though I just read the comments on that article, and they point out that political campaigns are not legally bound by CAN-SPAM, so it's more just that the campaigns are not following best practices. And, in my opinion, are being a bit... tacky.