Best fundraising thermometer ever

The Republican Party is trying to use John Kerry and Ted Kennedy's recent $500,000 donations to party campaign committees as a fundraising tool to raise $2 million online. An email to supporters today from Sen. Bill Frist (PDF) measures the party's progress toward its goal with what has to the best thermometer-style fundraising graphic ever:

Update 10/28 11:00 AM: Ted Kennedy sent an email to John Kerry's supporters where he looks a lot like the GOP thermometer picture:

PS In the GOP picture, why are Kennedy and Kerry's heads floating over a field of grass?

Comments

[Lettuce]

I'll bite:

Since I'm neither from the south or Massachusetts, what's funny about that?

[Brendan Nyhan]

The joke is that Ted Kennedy is usually portrayed as red- or purple-faced (esp. when he gets mad), so I thought it was creative to color more of his head red as the GOP raises more money. That's all.