my bad

Joshua Levy — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:59:45 -0400

Jerome, my mistake.

wrong

Jerome Armstrong — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:23:43 -0400

"Even MyDD's Jerome Armstrong, a Dean Internet advisor in 2003, calls it "the largest grass-roots campaign in history for this stage of a presidential race.""

No, I didn't say that, the Obama campaign said it about themselves in an email. I would agree, if the only metric you have for that being the number of donors.

Daily Digest: 7/17/07

Joshua Levy — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:01:09 -0400

The Web on the Candidates

The growing use of broadband Internet is helping Barack Obama raise more money from more people than ever before, writes the Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas. Not only did about a third of Obama's second-quarter earnings of $32.8 million come from online donations, but 90 percent of those donations were under $100, and half were $25 or less. Even MyDD's Jerome Armstrong, a Dean Internet advisor in 2003, calls it "the largest grass-roots campaign in history for this stage of a presidential race." Beyond the appeal of the candidate, part of the reason for the big numbers may come from increased broadband access. African American adults' connection rates have nearly tripled from 14 percent in 2005 to 40 percent this year, according to Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "Folks online are doing things they've never done before," Rainie says.

The New York Times reports that, in addition to raising money in the form of small donations, Obama's campaign "has also employed novel tactics — like counting sales of $5 speech tickets or $4.50 Obama key chains as individual contributions — to pump up his numbers and transform grass-roots enthusiasm into more useful forms of support." The combination of traditional fundraising and counting paraphernalia sales toward his numbers has combined to give Obama more money ($58.4 million) than any candidate in either party. Another plus: in addition to bringing in more money, merchandise sales add names to the donor rolls.

techPresident - Daily Digest: 7/17/07 - Comments

my bad

wrong

Daily Digest: 7/17/07