Stupid E-mail Watch: Obama’s List and the Rest of Us

While Barack Obama’s e-mail list-building shortcomings may spell trouble for him, they offer the rest of us an opportunity.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s e-mail signup form does not send new registrants a verification e-mail. What’s more, subsequent messages are personalized. As a result, anyone can supply any e-mail address they want and attach any name to it.

The lack of safeguards has led some individual or individuals to register anti-spammers’ e-mail addresses with insulting names, such as StupidSpamSucker SlutFace. As a result, the Obama campaign has been calling the address holders by the insulting names supplied by the prankster or pranksters.

Shame on the prankster.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s think about the ramifications for the rest of us for a moment, shall we?

We can now have an articulate, charismatic, viable candidate for leader of the most powerful nation on earth call us anything we want.

Imagine waking up to an e-mail with the salutation: “Dear Godlike Being,” or “Dear Breathtaking Genius.”

Heck, it doesn’t matter if you want to vote for the guy or not, just getting a warm, personalized greeting from such a charming candidate would be a nice start to the day.

Too bad I didn’t think of this idea before I tested Obama’s e-mail signup snafu. Right now, he’s greeting me with: “Stupid.”