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If I were running for political office, and especially if the office I were running for were as consequential as President of the United States of America, I would not be seeking handouts from visitors to my online home before even letting my guests get a foot in the door. Clearly political candidates need to raise funds to support their campaigns, but can't the solicitation wait until after I get comfortable with who they are?

The reason I'm mentioning this is that tonight, for the first time, I visited the respective websites of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the two candidates seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party in the upcoming November 2008 Election. Quite frankly, I was shocked by the wide degree of difference between the reception I received at each site. Without requiring you to click through and visit the sites for yourselves (unless you're so inclined, that is), I'll let you see the message with which each candidate greeted me upon my arrival at their online "Front Door." Gentlemen first:

Compare that message from Barack Obama with the following from Mrs. Clinton:

See the difference? I just don't understand who is making the decision to solicit handouts from the very get-go. I shouldn't have to feel put upon by my host when visiting their (online) home. Barack Obama seems to understand what it means to welcome his visitors. And let me say one more thing about these initial greeting pages. With Mr. Obama's site, I only see this particular page the first time I visit his site. From then on out, it's like we have a relationship established, an open-door policy, if you will. The next time I visit his site, I get to go right to his actual homepage. No detours, no annoyances, and no distractions are deemed necessary for repeat visitors. Compare that with Hilary Clinton's approach. Every time that I try to go to hillaryclinton.com, my browser is forcefully redirected to this ridiculous "Contribution" page. Hitting me up for a donation the first time I visit is plain rude, yes. Insisting that I repeatedly have to run the same solicitation gauntlet each time I visit is simply asinine.

The differences do not stop at the front door to these candidate websites. Once I finally get to an actual homepage for each candidate, it becomes clear that one candidate simply feels compelled to get into my wallet one way or another. Check it out:

Mrs. Clinton feel so strongly about making it easy for me to not miss a chance to contribute that she has decided to put not just one, and not even two, but three, yes three, large, red buttons in prominent positions on her homepage. These buttons appear to be permanent fixtures, much like the gas money cup located in my friend's car in high school. Sure, he was willing to drive the group wherever we wanted to go, but only after a deposit was placed into the cup. Mrs. Clinton seems to be that high school buddy of mine -- she'll drive, but it is going to cost me first.

Compare and contrast that with the homepage of Barack Obama, where two large, prominent, red buttons adorn his space, one of which is in rotation with other campaign-relevant content:

In essence, he has one prominently-located donation button on his homepage. Seems tasteful enough to me. The other donation button rotates into view every 40 seconds and sticks around for 10 seconds, only to disappear as other interest content takes its place. Interestingly, even though he is asking less, I'm more inclined to send him a contribution. In fact, my wife suggested that we send him something just to retaliate for the sour feelings generated by Hillary Clinton's obsession with filling the campaign coffers. I love the irony here; Hillary Clinton's focus on contributions has in fact motivated me to make a contribution. It worked! I'll be sending Barack Obama a contribution just as soon as I submit this for publication. It's nice to see how the efforts of the candidates is able to motivate me to take action.