A Stitch in Haste

Mitt Romney, who initially boasted about his campaign fundraising successes, suddenly feels a need to debase his volunteer currency:

Participants in "Students for Mitt" will get 10 percent of the money they raise for the campaign beyond the first $1,000. While candidates often offer professional fundraisers commissions up to 8 percent, campaign experts believe the Massachusetts Republican is the first to do so with the legion of college students who have historically served as campaign volunteers.

"For the kids that [sic] want to get involved in a political campaign and they don't want to spend their summer painting houses, they can help the campaign and themselves at the same time," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

Others take a dimmer view. "It may very well succeed, but I'd like to think that he'd approach young people and college students based on their commitment to the country, not because they want walking-around money," said Steve Grossman, a prominent Massachusetts fundraiser and past chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

I think all volunteer political activists, regardless of age or party, are schmucks -- and disingenuous ones at that. You want to show "commitment to the country" by volunteering? Work in a soup kitchen or a pediatric ward, not a telemarketing phone bank. So I'll recuse myself from the Democratic infighting.

But what about the Mormon angle? As I understand it, young Mormon lads who go on "missions" don't get paid for it. Their lives are quite spartan while they're away. Their reward is not worldly; they're expected to just do it because -- well, because they're expected to just do it.

I would have thought the same should be true for young "missionary" politicos: The reward is supposed to be the fact that your candidate wins, not movie money (or the free video iPod for the top collector).

Or perhaps it's all about the rewards (i.e., ka-ching!) to Romney and not to the idealistic (naive?) kids.

Thoughts?