Burnt Orange Report

People Powered Howard

By Andrew Dobbs

Well I suppose that many of the readers of this blog are keeping up with the Democratic Presidential Primary so you are probably already aware that Howard Dean has raised over $6.5 million and counting this quarter. As of 12 minutes ago we had raised $230,000 today alone. The amazing thing is that the average donation size is less than $100 which suggests a few things.

First, we have tens of thousands of new donors, people that are moved by this message into giving money. Ted Sorenson always said that 50 $1 donations are better than one $100 donation. The simple act of writing a check, or giving your credit card number to a stranger so that another stranger can run for office is an incredibly huge step and if you can convince 25,000 people nationwide to do that, you are a force to be reckoned with.

Secondly, a very large portion of this bounty will be matched by federal dollars- this $6.5 million could end up being $10 million or more by the end of it all.

Finally, Howard Dean can beat Bush because he can hold his own on Bush's ground of traditional campaigning and then beat him on the field of grassroots organizing. People talk about how much money Bush has, etc., but there is a saturation point. $200 million vs. $100 million isn't that big of a difference, they both buy a lot of commercials. In fact, in some races (a la Tony Sanchez) too many ads can backfire. So Dean has a fundraising muscle with ordinary people that, when coupled with the big dollar donors that will show up if he wins the nom, can build a healthy war chest and then he can turn out crowds, build excitement and have a movement that costs almost nothing but is incredibly powerful. He is the only candidate that doesn't look like a creature of the out-of-touch elitism of Washington DC and is the only one with the power to create such a movement.

Joe Trippi called us all into the conference room today to let us know that we are making history. Someday soon there will be an upper division poli sci class called "The Politics of the Internet" and the entire first few weeks will be devoted to Dean For America. This campaign is doing something never done before and it is incredibly exciting to be a part of it. I would invite you to be a part of it too by giving just a little bit of money, $10, $50, $2000, it all makes a difference. You can go to http://www.deanforamerica.com/contribute and give there.

Let's take our country back.