Last Friday, I embarked on a quest to get to know the democratic presidential candidates.  I went online and registered my email to receive communications and updates from all of the campaigns.

My initial responses disappointed me greatly.  I wanted to get to know the candidates, but what I was receiving was pleas for money to put into their coffers.  Then I received an email from Joe Biden’s campaign.  I opened it expecting to see the bold link connecting me to a donations page.  To my surprise, I found an email discussing his stance on Iraq.  I read the entire email and digested its contents.

It discussed how there needed to be a political solution to the Iraq problem.  He wanted to see a loose federal system supported by strong regional governments.  This method, according to Biden, would give Iraqis more control and say over their own daily lives.  He included a link that asked people to endorse the Biden-Brownback-Boxer amendment that called for including Iraqi citizens to aid with the transition of Iraq into a federal system.

Wow.  Here was a candidate willing to communicate about an issue that I find troubling.  However, two days later I received another email from the campaign.  Again, Biden wanted endorsement for the amendment.  But there it was—the dreaded link to his donations page.  In fact, there were two links within the body of the email.  Here was a candidate that I respected (and don’t get me wrong, I still did) playing the money game.

I reminded myself that candidates did not have a choice if they wanted any chance of winning an election.  This fact was one of the many reasons why I would never go into politics. I’ll stick to holding my breath while I open an email from a candidate hoping to see a discussion of the issues.

Even though I was disappointed by the second email, I have to give Biden credit.  He did wait two days before asking me to open my wallet.

For those of you interested in supporting the amendment, here is a (I almost can’t write the word) link:
http://joebiden.com/getinvolved/petitions/iraq_vote