I made a significant contribution to Barak Obama’s presidential campaign, and in the mail today, I received an invitation to the inauguration (image). If I were to go to the inauguration, would it get me into any otherwise-closed events, or is it just a fancy-looking piece of paper?
Looks pretty darn official to me. I don’t know why they would waste funds mailing out fancy looking pieces of paper. I you don’t want to/can’t use it, I will take it off your hands because I would absolutely love to be there that day.
I don’t know the hard and fast answer to this but actual seating for the inauguration is ticketed and I would think you would have something with your seat assignments if you were really invited as a VIP.
Some web sites discuss this and label it as marketing. Did you receive material along with it offering merchandise? It may be authentic in that it comes from Obama’s campaign but it more like an announcement than a true invitation.
Courtesy of posters on this site, here is a NY Times article about the printing of the invitations. One million of them. I can tell you that there is not space in DC for one million VIPs to have preferred seating.
My cynical view is that this invitation is a nice way of saying “thank you” but doesn’t give you any privileges not available to the general public. After all, you’re Nobody Special 
That pretty much looks like a real invitation to me. All I get are emails asking for another $25 for a chance to win a ticket to the events. I’ll bet there will be tickets forthcoming when they are printed.
Is there anything else with it or anything on the back? Is your name on it anywhere? I’d say if your name isn’t on it, it’s just a fancy announcement card. I’m pretty sure that if it conferred any special privileges it would spell them out.
Then again, it might get you into some kind of basic stadium seating rather than having to stand out on the street and hoping to see the motorcade go by.
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I got one of these emails too, and I’ve been trying to figure out why the Obama campaign keeps hitting me up for more money. Every email I’ve received from them since the election has a “Donate Now” button or link in it. IIRC they had more money than they knew what to do with even before the election was over. Why do they keep asking me for more? What gives?
Yep—I got this too. Attached is a page that says this invite gets us in to all the public events. Which I don’t think we need an invitation for.
It’s impressive, though. Raised ink printing and all.
I think everyone who donated money, and whose address they have, got an invitation. I certainly did.
Ed
Agreed. I received the exact same thing as well.
Got mine in the mail today, as well.
Hmph. My feelings are hurt. I haven’t gotten an invitation and I donated! ::sniff sniff::
Waaaaah!
Just a money raising scam. Was the return address in Nigeria?
I should think that a genuine invitation would include tickets, seat assignments, location, dress code, parking and transportation information, and other information important to someone who’s going to attend.
Wow. That’s change we can do without.
So what if it’s not anything really…real. Frame it and lie to your grandkids. 
I got one of these too. Studying it carefully I found that it says the invitation isn’t needed and the events are public. I don’t think that paper gets you anyplace you couldn’t already go. Plus, there were sales pitches for $78 coffee mugs or some such. Ours is on the refrigerator. I would love to be part of the festivities, but taking a vacation day to watch events on TV together is looking like the wiser option.
I do, though, envy those who for whatever reason have accomodations within walking distance of the podium.
Barack! With a C!
I like your way of thinking.
The straight dope is that what you have is not a ticket to anything. The Washington Post has a story this morning about ticketing for the event. There are 240,000 tickets being made available. The online story does not show it but the newspaper has an image of a ticket, which actually says “Admit bearer to…” and is color-coded for the seating area (or SRO area).
We did not donate, but VeryCoolSpouse worked extensively on the campaign and received an invite (picture with the candidate, too). Got rather teary-eyed about it, too. I will not be mentioning that it’s not really good for attendance at the actual swearing-in.