Obama's Canned LTE Campaign and Media Hypocrisy

During the 2004 presidential campaign the RNC was roundly criticized for urging Republicans to write letters to the editor (LTEs) of their local papers and providing canned letters they could email in. The media denounced this as fake and astroturf and immoral.

Don't look now, but Obama is doing it. I got an email from him titled "You Call this Progress?" in which he asks me to write an LTE about Bush's failed Iraq war and war on terror. In the email is a link to a Web form where I enter my name and address and then am given a sample letter (below) to send in.

Now, I personally don't have a problem with this. Presumably no one who didn't agree with the content of the canned letter would use it.

What I have a problem with is that the media denounced the GOP for using this (common) tactic while you can bet they'll stay mum on Obama's (and likely Hillary's and the rest) use of it. If it's wrong for the GOP to use it then it should be "wrong" for everyone. If it was newsworthy when the RNC did it then it should be newsworthy now. I'll bet you won't hear a thing.

Here's the letter, coming to a local paper near you:

Dear Editor,

I am writing today with disappointment over the recent actions of President Bush. A new threat assessment from U.S. counterterrorism analysts shows that almost six years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still alive and his organization is still training terrorists. Al-Qaeda has regained strength. Its resurgence demonstrates that the Iraq war has been a deadly distraction from the real threats we face.

This week, the Bush administration released a report on the "progress" we have made in Iraq, highlighting the administration's denial of the situation there. Their dismissal of the new threat assessment further masks the fact that the war in Iraq should never have been authorized or waged, and that it must end now.

Thank you for your time.