The British paper The Guardian Weekly has launched Operation Clark County. No, they do not mean our friends across the Columbia river. They mean Clark County, Ohio.

According to The Guardian:

You may not have heard of it, but it’s one of the most marginal areas in one of the most marginal states: at the last election, just 324 votes separated Democrats from Republicans. It’s a place where a change of mind among just a few voters could make a real difference.

I’m assuming that by “marginal,” what The Guardian means is “close.” “This is a place,” says The Guardian where a few votes could make a difference.

Operation Clark County pairs a Guardian reader with a Clark County voter. Entering an e-mail address in the provided registration box returns the name and address of someone in Ohio. The Guardian explains:

Writing to a Clark County voter is a chance to explain how US policies effect you personally, and the rest of the world more generally, and who you hope they will send to the White House. It may even persuade someone to use their vote at all. [...] Of course, who you urge your voter to support is entirely up to you.

Helpful hints are provided, such as be courteous and charming, don’t make assumptions, explain why you are writing, etc. The Guardian promises to publish a selection of the most persuasive letters on October 20th.

And, although the reader is not advised which candidate to suggest, sample letters from British luminaries leave little doubt:

As the bumper stickers put it, “Re-defeat Bush”. But, this time, do it so overwhelmingly that neither his brother’s friends in Florida nor his father’s friends on the Supreme Court will be able to rig the count. Decent Americans - there are absolutely more intelligent, educated, civilised, cultivated, compassionate people in America than in any other country in the western world - please show your electoral muscle this time around. We in the rest of the world, who sadly cannot vote in the one election that really affects our future, are depending on you. Please don’t let us down.

It’s always interesting how others see us.

The last debate between Kerry and Bush — not a decisive win for either. But what color is Bush’s sky?

I got really tired of Bush repeating that the cure for everything — the economy, jobs, taxes, anything — was education and the No Child Left Behind Act. I wanted him to have to answer these questions:

* When all of these well-educated kids graduate from high school / college, where in the hell are they going to find jobs? Do you expect them to move to India?

* If I lose my job to outsourcing, while I appreciate the thought that I may get a pittance to help me retrain, how the hell, as a single mom, am I supposed to feed my family in the meantime?

* What exactly are the “jobs of the 21st century?” I have what I was told 10 years ago was a “job of the 21st century.” I’m watching all of my friends and colleagues losing their jobs to outsourcing.

* Do you have the remotest clue that an $60k+ professional position and a minimum-wage burger-flipping job are not synonymous? Do you know how many workers at Walmart qualify for government aid?

At least Kerry seems to live somewhere on the same planet that I do.