We’re not going to repeat these as he sends them out. To do so would be boring, and it would also constitute an endorsement of Jindal’s presidential run. We’re not making any such endorsement – for one thing we like several of the other Republican presidential hopefuls better than Jindal, and for another we’re not going to be making any endorsement at all for quite some time.

But by way of illumination to see what Jindal’s online fundraising appeals look like, here’s what showed up in The Hayride’s e-mail this morning…

Friend,

I wanted to share with you a note I received from a supporter in Ohio. His name is Brandon, and this is what he sent me:

“I feel that the majority of Americans including myself want to see our country thrive again on all levels.”

And then Brandon, who is retired, made a small contribution – just $5.00 – to show his support.

I wanted to thank Brandon and countless others who have made donations to our effort. But I also wanted to tell you how humbling it is to have regular everyday Americans, all across this country, letting me know that they’ve got my back.

As you know, I’ve been spending time thinking about what the next President needs to actually do in office. If I run for President, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction. 

So I have a special request: don’t just stand with me, but stand with Brandon, Marilyn from California, Donna from Pennsylvania, and countless other Americans who have made generous contributions to support this effort.

Just $25, $15, or even $5 sends a clear signal that, together, we can take back our country and restore the American Dream.

Thanks,
Bobby

To be sure, there isn’t anything particularly unique about the above. In fact, this is what online fundraising looks like – in case you’re one of the lucky ones whose e-mail address hasn’t made it into a politician’s database of potential supporters. It’s looked like this ever since 2008, when the Obama campaign pioneered the practice of blasting out a million e-mails a day asking supporters for small amounts of money.

The difference is, Obama’s team employed behavioral scientists and Facebook experts to data mine potential supporters’ social media posts in order to build psychographic profiles of people in their database and to make not personal appeals like the one Jindal sent out but instead PERSONALIZED appeals. If they had reason to believe certain people in their database were big abortion fans, those people would get bombarded with messages about how the right to have an abortion is under attack by crazy Republicans like Todd Akin. If they found evidence that others had gun control as their hot-button issue, those people would get bombed with messages about how Obama wanted to take guns away from the crazies in the trailer parks.

And so on.

Jindal’s emails, to the best of our estimation, aren’t quite so advanced. They’re trying to pull at the general heartstrings of the folks on his list and ramp up something of a campaign.

Others are doing it better. Jindal’s team is just getting started. Back home, he’s not playing a very large part in the goings-on at the Legislature.