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May 16, 2008

The Atlantic On Obama's Money Machine

The Atlantic has a fantastic article about Barack Obama's fundraising operation:

The story of Obama’s success is very much a story about money. It provided his initial credibility. It paid for his impressive campaign operation. It allowed him first to compete with, and then to overwhelm, the most powerful Democratic family in a generation—one that understood the power of money in politics and commanded a network of wealthy donors that has financed the Democratic Party for years.

What’s intriguing to Democrats and worrisome to Republicans is how someone lacking these deep connections to traditional sources of wealth could raise so much money so quickly. How did he do it? The answer is that he built a fund-raising machine quite unlike anything seen before in national politics. Obama’s machine attracts large and small donors alike, those who want to give money and those who want to raise it, veteran activists and first-time contributors, and—especially—anyone who is wired to anything: computer, cell phone, PDA.

For anyone interested in the intersection of the Internet, social networks, and how traditional political fundraising is being has been completely upended by this new model, it's a must-read.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at May 16, 2008 9:15 AM. Posted to Politics.

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