Rove's Worst Nightmare

This, today, from Joe Trippi: (he's called this one correctly, by the way, so break out your checkbook.)

To: Interested Parties

From: Joe Trippi

Re: Karl Rove's Worst Nightmare

You may have seen Karl Rove's recent attacks on Hillary Clinton in the news. This is a page straight out of his tired old playbook—Rove is attacking Hillary Clinton because he doesn't want John Edwards to win the Democratic nomination. Rove knows that Democrats will rally around whomever he attacks—so he attacks the candidate he thinks Republicans can most easily defeat.It may seem backwards, but Rove and his cronies did the same thing last time around. In 2004, they were scared of John Edwards, so they attacked John Kerry. Don't take it from me—take it from Rove's own lieutenant on the Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection campaign, Matthew Dowd:
"Whomever we attacked was going to be emboldened in Democratic primary voters' minds. So we started attacking John Kerry a lot in the end of January because we were very worried about John Edwards." [Los Angeles Times, 8/19/07]Rove and the Republicans want our opponents to win—because they know John will be the strongest candidate in the general election.We may not be the richest campaign—but John is the strongest candidate. This time around, the candidate with the boldest ideas for changing America—the candidate who can take on the special interests in Washington, D.C. and win—is also the most electable. We know it—and the Republicans know it, too. But they won't be able to stop us if we have the support of people like you.Can you make a contribution today—and send Karl Rove the message that his efforts to influence the Democratic primary won't work this time?www.johnedwards.com/roves-nightmareIt is no secret that John is the only Democratic candidate who can beat any of the Republican candidates hands down. Just look at the polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports—a major national polling firm—over the past few months. They show that John is the Democratic candidate who consistently beats all of the Republicans candidates in head-to-head match-ups in battleground states—and by the widest margins. Rove and the Republicans are seeing the same numbers we are—and drawing the same conclusions. So Rove is using his sneaky, underhanded tactics to try and trick Democrats into rallying around a candidate who won't be as strong as John in the general election. But with your support, we can make sure that Rove's plan doesn't work this time. We are building a strong grassroots organization in the key early states and across the country. John has the best and boldest ideas for bringing big change to America, he can take on the special interests and win, and of all the Democratic candidates he will be the strongest in the general election—in other words, John Edwards is Karl Rove's worst nightmare.All we need is your support to drive right past Karl Rove's see-through tactics—and keep our campaign on the road to victory.www.johnedwards.com/roves-nightmareThank you for all you do to support this campaign.

This Was a Cool Tool

Back last year when Edwards was in Atlanta for his book signing, a photographer snapped away as Edwards greeted each person. Then, you were given a card with a website where the photo could be viewed and copied. The catch was that to enter the site, you registered with your email address and were given the option of providing a cellphone #. I did that and now get text message alerts from the Edwards folks on a semi-regular basis. Today's message was a little different, though, and it had Joe Trippi's fingerprints all over it. I got a text message that said Sen. Edwards wanted to talk to me and would call if I hit reply or called a number that was provided. I took the bait. The call was a recorded message from Edwards that spoke to the importance of giving before the end of the quarter (it really, really is important, and you should do it now), and offered to connect me to a volunteer so that I could make a donation, if only I would press '1.'

This is innovative, and a very cool tool- a robo-call the voter chooses to receive.