Guardian (UK) Angers or Pleases Folks Here in Clark County, Ohio

[SeanOhio]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/14/oh.paper.lettercampaign.ap/

http://guardian.assets.digivault.co.uk/clark_county/

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/news/stories/2004/10/14/sns1014guardian.html

The big talk around Springfield, Ohio, my hometown, is how The Guardian (UK) is sending out letters from Britons to undecided voters here. It was the lead story in the paper and local TV outlets are airing segments about it, too. I'm amazed by the responses: most seem to appreciate it solely because, as I've been hearing all day, "Tony Blair's the leader over there." Others are finding it rude and intrusive. A couple of right-wingers I know claimed the Guardian was a "French-related" newspaper.

I'm hoping someone in my family gets a letter; some famous people have sent them out already.

[Kolesar]

1. this got coverage on Ohio public radio

It reminds me of mid summer 2003 when the local Deaniacs were hand writing letters to Iowa democrats.

[SeanOhio]

2. Oh?

That's good. We're all over the news, now. I just hope some right-wingnuts don't soil our good name with idiotic quotes.

[RafterMan]

3. Can you post a few key paragraphs

from the Springfield paper? It's one of those registration things...

[SeanOhio]

4. Sure

Readers of a British newspaper have been invited to write Clark County voters with the aim of persuading the undecided to vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.

The 400,000-circulation Guardian, a London-based newspaper, published an article explaining to its international readers that although they have no vote in the U.S. presidential election, they can make a difference.

...

The newspaper already received e-mail letters from people upset about the campaign, even some from Ohio telling the newspaper to get lost, Katz said.

“We’ve gotten a lot of angry Republicans,” he said. “We figured there would be attempts to sabotage it.”

Despite some complaints, Katz said they also have some people copying courteous and reasonably intelligent letters to the newspaper saying “good on you” for its efforts.

The Springfield News-Sun also received about a dozen e-mails, starting early in the day, about the Guardian campaign, from places as diverse as New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Alaska and Switzerland, almost all of which expressed some degree of outrage.

A woman in New York City e-mailed that she had requested Clark County addresses under her six separate accounts. “I intend to immediately delete the e-mails should I ever get them. Thus, I may have saved six Ohio voters from being annoyed by Britishers with an axe to grind,” she wrote.

Yup. Britishers.