Obama’s T-shirt offer a mad election capper

Ack! It hasn’t even been a week since the election polls closed, and Barack Obama’s people are already asking for more money. And they won! The latest arrived in my inbox on Monday, asking for 30 bucks for a “commemorative 2008 Victory T-shirt.”

According to the latest plea for cash, the Democratic National Committee says it has “poured all of its resources into building our successful 50-state field program.” The committee “played a crucial role in helping Barack win in unlikely states like North Carolina and Indiana. We even picked up an electoral vote in Nebraska.”

And, it seems, it “took on considerable debt to make this happen.”

Upon getting this one-time, act-now offer, I felt the fevered campaign all rush back, with a startling realization: How come John McCain never asked me, an unaffiliated voter, for a little dough and a little love?

To recap, during this long campaign, I got “personal” e-mails from Al Gore, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Marianne Markowitz (Obama’s chief financial officer), Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, DNC Chairman Howard Dean and Obama himself asking me for money for the Obama machine.

I was offered, via e-mail, a limited-edition car magnet for 10 bucks, then got an offer for an Obama application for an iPhone that I don’t have and was promised a contribution will be doubled by an undisclosed supporter. I watched my inbox as the cost of an Obama-Biden yard sign went from $5 to $15.

In contrast, McCain sent no “personalized” note. Nor did any of his people. He never asked, not even for one thin dime.

But McCain’s people did call — boy, did they call. Three times to warn me about Obama’s being pals with a terrorist who blew up the Pentagon (at least that’s what it sounded like) and another one demanding to know whether I know that Obama was “putting Hollywood above America.” The calls always sounded very threatening and ominous (though in truth the Hollywood one made me laugh).

And, yes, real live Obama people did call too — five times to ask if I had voted and if so, for whom. No offense to the volunteers, but my vote is my own. I told them so. None of them, by the way, could tell me where they had gotten their hands on my unlisted number.

A week after the election and I’m thinking I’m safe, and then the expensive T-shirt offer comes in. Maybe there’s gonna be another election, just a couple years away, but still … couldn’t we have just had one week off?

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