Rock Star From Mars
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:money: Some Democrats like to go on and on about how Republicans are so wealthy, and they like to depict Democrats as dirt-poor folks who stand up for the little guy.
Really, huh? Take a look at this:
Barack Obama campaign raised nearly $1 billion, shattering records - Fundraising outpaced combined total of Bush and Kerry in 2004 election, records show
As he hosted a gala celebration for some of his earliest and most loyal financial supporters Thursday evening, President-elect Barack Obama's aides released new information showing the magnitude of their feat: They raised nearly $1 billion for his campaign and other election-related efforts.
The stunning total includes already recorded and estimated fundraising for his campaign, national convention, transition and upcoming inauguration.
That sets a new and dramatically higher bar for future presidential candidates, radically changing the financial definition of a serious bid for the White House.
Roughly three-quarters of the money Obama raised was directly channeled to his campaign, a marathon that lasted nearly two years and ushered in an unprecedented level of national fundraising using old-school techniques as well as a cutting-edge, Internet-based operation.
A disclosure report filed late Thursday showed Obama raised $111 million from Oct. 16 through Nov. 24.
That brings his campaign total receipts to $770 million, easily more than the combined fundraising for the 2004 election by President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Not including money that was later distributed to his own campaign fund, Obama helped raise more than $100 million for a joint committee he had with the Democratic National Committee. The party used that money for voter turnout and other election-related activities.
A host committee for the Democratic National Convention in Denver also raised about $61 million, while his transition and inaugural committees will likely raise a combined $50 million or more.
The flood of money provided Obama crucial strategic advantages in the election, allowing him to deploy resources beyond recent partisan battlegrounds to compete in traditionally Republican states.
Obama was even able to do what only billionaire Ross Perot had done before: buy a half-hour of prime-time network television to make an extended and highly polished closing argument during the final week of the campaign.
He was able to capitalize on his fundraising success because of his choice to break political tradition and reject public financing of his fall general election campaign. That freed him from strict spending limits that have covered every other major-party nominee since the modern campaign finance reforms were passed in the wake of the Watergate scandals.
Serious presidential candidates are now likely to follow Obama's example and refuse public financing unless there are major changes in the system.
Even as Obama's aides prepare to close the books on his campaign effort, he is still raising money.
As recently as Wednesday, supporters received an e-mail solicitation on behalf of the Democratic National Committee. The pitch offered a "limited edition" Obama coffee mug, in exchange for contributions of $15 or more.
Over the course of the campaign, Obama assembled a donor database of nearly 4 million, including many who gave multiple times in smaller-dollar increments.
Though Obama was less dependent on big donors who contributed more than $1,000 to his campaign than recent presidential nominees, they still provided nearly half the funding for his campaign.
Big donors contributed 47 percent of the funds for the Obama campaign versus 60 percent for George Bush in 2004 and 56 percent for John Kerry that same year, according to a recent analysis by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute based on data through mid-October.
On Thursday night, Obama played host to a thank-you reception at The Standard Club in Chicago for many of his fundraisers, mostly from Illinois. Obama's wife, Michelle, also attended the private event, which aides described as a mixture of Illinois finance committee members and national finance committee members. The president-elect spoke briefly after being introduced by John Rogers and James Crown, key members of his Illinois finance committee. Penny Pritzker, the chairwoman of his national finance committee, also attended.
"This is not goodbye," said Obama, who enters office Jan. 20. "This is the start."
Obama looked out onto the crowd and said he saw classmates, friends, co-workers, past bosses and some of his earliest political supporters, including Bettylu Saltzman.
"I'm almost speechless here, which I don't usually get, because this is really a tapestry of our lives," he said. "You know, we worked out at the East Bank Club. We worked on education stuff together. We've rabble-roused together. We've played basketball together. We have golfed, not so well, together. We've sat on foundation boards together. And we've seen frustrations, but also seen some dreams come true together."
Through mid-October, the Chicago metropolitan area was Obama's third most important area for fundraising, contributing $23.8 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Only the New York and Washington areas sent him more.
But those figures alone do not tell the full story about the importance of early money from Chicago for Obama's presidential bid as it was just getting off the ground in early 2007.
As of Nov. 15, Obama's transition fundraising committee had already raised $1.1 million from 1,776 donors, according to a voluntary disclosure recently posted on its Web site.
Obama haul reportedly hits $750 million
Final Official Obama Fundraising Number -- a Record-Setting $745 Million
Obama Raised $750 Million for Presidential Campaign, Aide Says
McCain Couldn't Compete With Obama's Money - By KARL ROVE
If money talks, we'll likely soon hear the real reason why Barack Obama beat John McCain. Both men and the national parties will report to the Federal Election Commission today how much money they raised in October and November. And what the numbers will probably show is that Mr. Obama outspent Mr. McCain by the biggest margin in history, perhaps a quarter of a billion dollars.
On May 31, as the general election began in earnest, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee had a combined $47 million in cash, while the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee had a combined $85 million.
Between then and Oct. 15, the Obama/DNC juggernaut raised $658.7 million. I estimate today's reports will show Mr. Obama, the DNC and two other Obama fund-raising vehicles raised an additional $120 million to $140 million in October and November, giving them a total of between $827 million and $847 million in funds for the general election.
Mr. McCain and the RNC spent $550 million in the general election, including the $84 million in public financing Mr. McCain accepted in exchange for his campaign not raising money after the GOP convention.
How did Mr. Obama use his massive spending advantage?
He buried Mr. McCain on TV. Nielsen, the audience measurement firm, reports that between June and Election Day, Mr. Obama had a 3-to-2 advantage over Mr. McCain on network TV buys. And Mr. Obama's edge was likely larger on local cable TV, which Nielsen doesn't monitor.
A state-by-state analysis confirms the Obama advantage. Mr. Obama outspent Mr. McCain in Indiana nearly 7 to 1, in Virginia by more than 4 to 1, in Ohio by almost 2 to 1 and in North Carolina by nearly 3 to 2. Mr. Obama carried all four states.
Mr. Obama also used his money to outmuscle Mr. McCain on the ground, with more staff, headquarters, mail and a larger get-out-the-vote effort. In mid-September the Obama campaign said its budget for Florida was $39 million. The actual number was probably larger. But in any case, Mr. McCain spent a mere $13.1 million in the state. Mr. Obama won Florida by 2.81 percentage points.
Mr. McCain was outspent by wide margins in every battleground state. But it would have been worse for him if RNC Chairman Mike Duncan and Finance Chairman Elliott Broidy hadn't stockpiled funds in 2007 and early 2008. The RNC provided nearly half the funds for the GOP's combined general-election campaign, while the DNC provided less than a tenth of the funds that benefited Mr. Obama.
To diminish criticism, Mr. Obama's campaign spun the storyline that he was being bankrolled by small donors. Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, calls that a "myth." CFI found that Mr. Obama raised money the old fashioned way -- 74% of his funds came from large donors (those who donated more than $200) and nearly half from people who gave $1,000 or more.
But that's not the entire story. It's been reported that the Obama campaign accepted donations from untraceable, pre-paid debit cards used by Daffy Duck, Bart Simpson, Family Guy, King Kong and other questionable characters. If the FEC follows up with a report on this, it should make for interesting reading.
Mr. Obama's victory marks the death of the campaign finance system. When it was created after Watergate in 1974, the campaign finance system had two goals: reduce the influence of money in politics and level the playing field for candidates.
This year it failed at both. OpenSecrets.org tells us a record $2.4 billion was spent on this presidential election. And with Mr. Obama's wide financial advantage, it's clear that money is playing a bigger role than ever and candidates are not competing on equal footing.
Ironically, the victim of this broken system is one of its principal architects -- Mr. McCain. He helped craft the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform along with Sen. Russ Feingold in 2002.
No presidential candidate will ever take public financing in the general election again and risk being outspent as badly as Mr. McCain was this year.
And even liberals, who have long denied that money is political speech that should be protected by First Amendment, may now be forced to admit that their donations to Mr. Obama were a form of political expression.
It is time to trust the American people and remove limits on how much an individual can donate to a campaign. By doing that, we can design a system that will be much more open by requiring candidates to frequently report donations in an online database.
Technology makes this possible. Such a system would be easier for journalists to use and would therefore make it more likely that fund raising would be included in news coverage. That would give voters the tools they need to determine if a candidate is getting too much from unattractive people.
Rather than showing the success of a new style of post-partisan politics, Mr. Obama's victory may show the enduring truth of the old Chicago Golden Rule: He who has the gold rules.
(This thread likely to be merged later with the Obama thread.)
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