Email of the Week (v9)

Thursday is 'Email of the Week' day, when I plow through a hundred or so emails from the handful of Democratic presidential candidates I'm following to see what's going on.

I received 160 emails this week from the gang of eight candidates I'm following.As usual, Mayor Pete led the way with 48 emails,  followed by Elizabeth Warren (29) Amy Klobuchar and That Guy From Vermont (24 each), Andrew Yang (20) the new guys, Mike Bloomberg and Deval Patrick (7 each) and Tom Steyer (1).

Fundraising, Iowa (pre- and post-caucus), upcoming debates, and New Hampshire were hot topics, as were pointed barbs at each other. 

There were even a couple of emails from Cory Booker, who's now running for his Senate seat instead of for President.  Here's one of them, with the subject line Trump is tearing our country apart.

I just walked out of the President’s State of the Union address.

What we heard from Donald Trump tonight was more of the toxic division that we’ve become accustomed to. He’s tearing us apart instead of bringing our country together.

I’ve always believed that the ties that bind us are stronger than the lines that divide us. As we work to elect a President and members of Congress this fall, it’s important that we choose candidates who will help unite us instead of pushing us further apart.

That’s where you come in, Sue.

I’m running for re-election to be one of those leaders. Please send in a donation now so I can keep a message of unity at the forefront of our national politics.

Our country is deeply hurting right now -- and the past three years of Trump’s hatred and bigotry have only added to the pain that millions of Americans are feeling.

As I said often during my campaign for president, defeating Donald Trump is only the floor -- not the ceiling. Once he’s out of office, we’ll then have to begin the hard work of healing a country so wounded that it elected someone like him in the first place.

I’m ready for the challenge before us, but I’m going to need your help. Invest in our campaign today to send me back to the Senate for another term.

Let’s also do everything we can to ensure that this was the last State of the Union address Donald Trump will deliver as our president.

Sincerely,
Cory

That was almost the winner, but since Booker is no longer running for president, I went back through everything, and that's when I found this one Andrew Yang. Short and sweet, it earned the coveted Email of the Week recognition.

Sue --

Last night during the Iowa caucuses, the entire nation realized something the Yang Gang has known since the beginning -- we desperately need a president who actually understands technology.

This is a HUGE opportunity for our campaign to win over every single voter who saw what happened in Iowa last night and is now looking for a president who is ready to lead us into a future that is already here.

If we act now, we can make sure all these voters know that Andrew will be that president. So make a rush donation before the end of the day to help us reach these voters!

Sure, he's asking for money - but in that first sentence, he hit the nail on the head.

We don't need someone who merely knows how to tweet and who thinks that Rudy 'The Butt-Dialer' Giuliani is a tech security expert - we need someone who understands that whatever the heck ends up being the result from Iowa, whenever we get it, we can't have leaders who don't understand how critical it is that our election technology is both world-class and works as intended.

And, honestly, that whatever we do, it cannot fall victim to something as simple as a bunch of goofballs calling in, jamming the lines, and preventing votes from being reported.

Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions.

"They have to call in the results now. Very long hold times being reported. Phone line being clogged," one user posted at about 11 p.m. ET on Monday, three hours after the caucuses began.

"Uh oh how unfortunate it would be for a bunch of mischief makers to start clogging the lines," responded another anonymous user, sarcastically.

Some users chimed in, posting alleged wait times on hold, imploring others to “clog the lines [and] make the call lads.”

Because if the goofballs can take us down so easily, can you imagine what the professionals can do?