Obama activates the e-mail list

President Obama sent out an email blast today asking supporters to share their personal stories on the need for healthcare reform. This follows an email Obama’s former campaign manager David Plouffe sent to Organizing for America last week warning that Republicans would “swiftboat” healthcare legislation.

“[P]lease consider sharing your personal story about the importance of health care reform in your life and the lives of those you love,” Obama wrote to supporters today. “I will be personally reviewing many of these signatures and stories. If you speak up now, your voice will make a difference.”

Obama warns that his opponents will spread “fear and confusion” about a reform package, and urges supporters to sign a petition fighting back.

The President goes on to recount his mother’s own fight with healthcare bureaucracy as she was struggling with ovarian cancer, an experience he’s shared in speeches before.

“[My mother] passed away from ovarian cancer a little over a decade ago. And in the last weeks of her life, when she was coming to grips with her own mortality and showing extraordinary courage just to get through each day, she was spending too much time worrying about whether her health insurance would cover her bills,” Obama wrote. “She deserved better. Every American deserves better.”

The flurry of email activity suggests the administration will utilize its massive campaign apparatus just as heavily in the healthcare fight as it did to pass the president’s budget. In that battle, Obama’s supporters went door to door, asking their neighbors to sign a petition and call their member of Congress.