Al Franken’s Oatmeal

I can’t stand all the fundraising e-mail blasts that fill my In Box during election season, but this one I liked. Former author and Saturday Night Live writer Al Franken has been pretty low-key since taking his U.S. Senate seat earlier this year following a close and bitter race. Now that he’s getting used to the job, hopefully he’ll loosen up and write more missives like this one, whose subject line was simply titled “Oatmeal.”

Dear Friend:

Here are two thought experiments.  Indulge me, won’t you?

It’s the morning after Election Day.  8 a.m.  You stumble out of bed.  Make some oatmeal.  Turn on the TV to find out what happened in that Senate race, the one that was too close to call all night.  But you gave $5 to the DSCC by clicking on this link.  And, lo and behold, your favorite Democrat — maybe Russ Feingold or Patty Murray — pulled it out by a few votes.  Oatmeal never tasted so sweet. 

But there’s another way it could go.  8 a.m.  Oatmeal.  TV.  But in this example, you DIDN’T give to the DSCC.  And, by a few hundred votes, some Tea Party extremist is now a U.S. Senator-elect — and Republicans have captured the majority.  How’s that oatmeal taste now?

You still have time to decide which scenario will become reality.  But when I say “time,” I don’t mean days.  I mean minutes.  Don’t wait for tomorrow.  Don’t even wait to read the rest of this email.  Click here right now and make a contribution of $5 or more — it will be matched two to one, tripling its impact!

You’ve seen the polls — we’re neck and neck in race after race.  Moving the numbers just a little bit could mean the difference between victory and defeat — trust me, I’ve been there.

And nobody moves numbers like the DSCC.  Thanks to people like you clicking on links like this one, we’ve pulled ahead in California and Connecticut and tied it up in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

But with just hours to go until the polls close, every minute counts.  Your contribution won’t be funding some far-off future plan — it’ll be the money that goes out the door first thing tomorrow.  It could be your $5 that makes the difference for Barbara Boxer, keeps Sharron Angle or Rand Paul out of the Senate, or even saves our majority.

So make a contribution of $5 or more to the DSCC right now — it’ll be on the air in a battleground state or in the field as part of a get-out-the-vote program by tomorrow morning.  And, even better, it will be matched two-to-one, tripling its impact.

If you want to know why I’m standing with the DSCC in the final days of this election, here’s why: On November 3, I don’t want my oatmeal to taste like regret.  I want my oatmeal to taste like victory.

How about you?

Thanks,

Al Franken