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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder - Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. More

Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal. He previously served as the politics editor, and is now a contributing editor, for The Atlantic, where he curated the influential Politics channel on TheAtlantic.com and contributed to the magazine. He was also a chief political consultant to CBS News. Earlier, at NJ's Hotline, Ambinder was the founding editor of "Hotline On Call," a pathbreaking political news blog. He also worked as a producer and reporter for the ABC News Political Unit and was one of the founders of ABC's "The Note." Born in New York City, raised in Central Florida, Ambinder is a 2001 graduate of Harvard and lives in Washington, D.C.

MoveOn's One-Click Petition

By Marc Ambinder
Apr 8 2009, 5:56 PM ET Comment

Read those e-mail petitions carefully. 

MoveOn.org Political Action latest missive involves a campaign to pressure Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to replace bank CEOs like Bank of America's Ken Lewis. 

An e-mail sent to supporters allows them to "sign" the petition with a single click, as each e-mail has been individually coded to reflect the unique recipient.   ("Can you sign our petition asking Treasury Secretary Geithner replace the leadership at bailed out banks--starting with Ken Lewis? Clicking here adds your name:")   

I'm just curious if other groups use one-click petitions...and whether folks clicked on the URL thinking they were getting more info -- and didn't intend to sign.  

Shaun Dakin, the CEO of Citizens for Civic Discourse and a leading scourge against misleading robocalls and political advertisements, tells me that he didn't realize he had signed the petition until he received a confirmation e-mail.  

The full text of the MoveOn e-mail, along with the redacted coded links, are after the jump.



Last week the Obama administration took tough, decisive action with the auto industry, forcing the resignation of the CEO of General Motors.
The president knows that we can't trust the same folks who got us into this mess to help lead us out.
It's time to do the same for the banks. And the best way to start is by firing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. He's the worst of the worst. 
Lewis's poor management helped ruin his company and our economy. Shareholders are calling him "reckless" and citing "disastrous missteps."1 Worse, Lewis accepted $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, but instead of using all the money to get the economy going again, he let $3.6 billion go to bonuses for top execs.2
There can't be real reform on Wall Street until the CEOs who brought down the banks we had to bail out are long gone. 
Can you sign our petition asking Treasury Secretary Geithner replace the leadership at bailed out banks--starting with Ken Lewis? Clicking here adds your name:  
http://pol.moveon.org/lewis//o.pl?id=[REDACTED]
The petition says: "We can't trust the same people who got us into this financial mess to help lead us out. Replace the leadership at the bailed-out banks, starting with Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis."
Lewis is the CEO of the biggest bank in the United States.3 If Secretary Geithner forces him to resign, it'll send a strong message to the rest of
Wall St.
: The era of zero accountability is over and reckless behavior that puts our economy at risk won't be tolerated.

Of all the folks who helped bring about the recession, Lewis is one of the worst:
    • Shareholders say he helped drive the company into the ground. Bank of America has lost billions--and 90% of its value--in part because Lewis "hastily arranged the ill-considered acquisition" of Merrill Lynch.4
    • Even after the crisis, he hasn't changed his ways. He ensured that high-level staff received bonuses--despite recent announcements that the bank was laying off another 35,000 employees.5
    • On top of all this, he's fighting against more rights for workers. Three days after receiving $25 billion in bailout money, Bank of America brought together powerful banking interests to figure out how to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that makes it easier for workers to form unions.6
Ken Lewis has got to go. And we need to look closely at the other bailed-out banks that may need new leadership too.
Our friends at Service Employees International Union (the country's fastest-growing union) have been leading this campaign for a few weeks--and they're building momentum quickly. If hundreds of thousands of us act, together, we'll be impossible to ignore. Please sign today!
http://pol.moveon.org/lewis//o.pl?id=[REDACTED] 
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