While most people find their mailboxes filled with Christmas cards and the like, this time of year in Iowa (well, this time of year every four years) mailboxes are stuffed to overflowing with campaign direct mail.

This is a representative sample of some of the direct mail pitch that we have received in the past two days. I don't know if the lack of pieces sent our way from Biden, Dodd, Richardson et al represents the tight budgets of those campaigns or a well-developed voter identification system which has simply given up on me.

As best as I can tell based on the mail: John Edwards wants to make it clear that he is fighting for me; Obama that he has good judgement and that he wants me to join him in transforming the country and the world (and in having a happy holiday); and Hillary that she is experienced and ready to go from day one. (Oh, yeah, and apparently Hillary's people (or her people's people at AFSCME) want me to know that if I caucus for Obama some nice people with inadequate health insurance will suffer and die.)

Its hard to tell if the direct mail deluge is truly effective in swaying votes, but it sure beats the bills that make up the rest of my mail today.

-- Michael Schiffer