Commander in Creep Got a friend who backs Obama? They have a list of people like you. DECEMBER 14, 2011 Somewhere along the line, somebody signed us up for the Barack Obama campaign emails. Normally we don't care for spam, political or otherwise, but these are so odd that we've kept them coming out of curiosity. Some of them have a stalker-like quality, plaintive yet vaguely menacing in their persistence, such as the one we noted in September titled "James, can we meet for dinner?" If you don't like it, you can always unsubscribe. But now the campaign is turning the creepiness up a notch. The Obama re-election effort has "asked supporters to make a campaign donation 'inspired' by somebody else," reports Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner. He's a little weird. This one doesn't seem to be going to everybody on the list; we have yet to receive it--though our latest missive from BarackObama.com is somewhat similar in concept: "Have you been thinking about who you'd bring to the next Dinner with Barack?" it asks. "Tell us who you would bring if you won--and why." But the campaign isn't going to contact your plus-one; the Web form asks only for the name. By contrast, the form for the "inspire" solicitation asks for an email address for your donation muse so that the campaign can "send them [sic] a message letting them know they inspired you to donate." The Obama campaign is deliberately sending spam to people who never signed up for it. You can also give a donation "in memory of" someone, and the site still asks for an email address. You can take the politician out of Chicago, but you can't take Chicago out of the politician. It gets worse. Blogress "Bookworm" reports having received this variant of the "inspired" email: Sure enough, BarackObama.com has a special Web form for donors who wish to have "fun at the expense of a Republican." Let's say you're a Republican and your 20-something daughter is an Obamabot. (Have you had a DNA test?) She makes a $10 donation to the president's campaign, which sends her an email tweaking you--and your name and email address are now on a list of dissenters against the most powerful man in the world. Probably this is just what the campaign presents it to be--a juvenile prank that is harmless beyond the nuisance of receiving campaign spam. Then again, remember AttackWatch.com? The Obama campaign has a history of clumsy appeals with vaguely totalitarian overtones. http://online.wsj.com...
