Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, October 2004, it is the run up to the 2004 election Bush versus

Kerry and the messaging campaign is really heating up we've talked about some of the

stuff from this election year before I think we did episodes about some of the stuff from this election year before.

I think we did episodes about some of the debates, the ads, the voting machines, the swift voting.

We actually haven't done the swift boat thing, and I think maybe we'll wait till next year to do that.

But today, let's talk about one really

interesting wrinkle in the 2004 election, a letter writing campaign in which

thousands of people signed up to send letters to swing voters in Clark County Ohio Ohio, a critical swing county in a

critical swing state and these letters were encouraging them to vote for

John Kerry, the Democrat. And who was organizing this letter writing campaign? The Guardian, a left-leaning

British newspaper. In the end, there were more than 10,000 Brits signing up to send letters

trying to swing an American election. It was known as Operation Clark County,

and let's talk about how it was ultimately responsible for winning John Kerry the 2004 election.

And wait a minute, no, I'm told it that. It's not the case. Bush carried Clark County and was reelected in 2004, but let's discuss it anyway. A really fascinating moment here, as always,

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello, Governor.

Oh, no.

Yeah, that's how they started those letters

and then I just all went, haywire from there, right?

Wait a minute.

Hey there.

...