A Story Pitch

As I have mentioned before, Politico "Playbook" has become a must-read for the political community. Today's "Playbook" gives a nice example of how political figures pitch stories. Mike Allen writes:

BEHIND THE CURTAIN -- CONSERVATIVES PLAN TO USE EGYPT TO ATTACK OBAMA NEXT WEEK - E-mail with subject line "Developing story idea for you," from Joe Brettell of CRC Public Relations, which represents many conservative policy groups: "Dear Mr. Allen, Given the confluence of stories in the last couple weeks regarding Egypt and the Middle East, rising oil prices and challenging economic numbers, I wanted to suggest a story that looks at the parallels between the challenges faced by President's Carter and Obama. Obviously, there have been whispers about the similarities, but not a lot of actual stories that have taken it on objectively; it's a brewing angle and I think you should be the one to write it.... You can expect a big push on this from conservatives in the next week or so." (Joe and I know each other, so the 'Dear Mr. Allen' was the tip-off it was a mass pitch, not a personal e-mail. Let's see who bites!)