Kevin Drum is right: Barack Obama's small-donor network has not revolutionized politics. He's gotten a very good response from millions of small donors, but that (a) hardly pays all the bills and (b) doesn't necessarily mean those donors will be there after the campaign ends. The big-money people will be.
Kevin says:
[The] basic argument is that Obama has created a spectacular money machine that he can call on at will. Got a congressman who's nervous about voting for healthcare reform because he'll lose the support of the insurance industry? No problem. President Obama can send out an email to his list, raise a couple mil overnight for the guy's reelection campaign, and there are no more worries about the insurance industry. Ditto for telecommunications, entertainment, and high tech cash.
This sounds great, but I'm skeptical. Obama has been raising enormous amounts of money from small donors, but he's been raising that money from people who are enthralled by Barack Obama and are willing to donate money to help Barack Obama become president. Once he actually becomes president, however, a lot of the thrill goes away. Partly this is because once the deed is done, the deed is done and people move on. Partly it's because the real-life Barack Obama is going to have to make compromises and tradeoffs just like any other real-life politician and his supporters will inevitably become a little less enthralled by him over time. Partly it's because people who are willing to donate to the Obama campaign aren't necessarily also willing to instantly open their wallets for other people just because Obama asks them to.
Plus there's this: Although Obama, and to a lesser extent online organizations like MoveOn, have been able to raise huge amounts of small-donor money, "huge" is a relative term. The amount may be big compared to my house payment, but compared to the cost of an entire election cycle it's still fairly small. This means that big corporate donors are going to stay pretty important.
I hope this assuages some of the people who were hyperventiliating over the fact that Obama was "consolidating his power within the party" when he asked people not to donate to 527s for the general election. It's one election. You win it, or not, then you take stock. If Obama wins, then lots of good things are possible. Telling people like Mark Alderman and Peter Buttenweiser we don't need them anymore isn't on that list.
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