For the second time in a week, American Prospect senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta nails the story and gets the big picture:
When the history of this past week in the Democratic primaries is written, the relative impact of MoveOn.org, Meetup.com and "smartmobbing" technology on Dean's ability to raise such an unexpected sum will all feature prominently.
But reading the threads on the message boards at BlogforAmerica.com -- the official Web log of the Dean campaign, where donors discuss their reasons for giving and for backing Dean -- it quickly becomes obvious that the single most important factor in Dean's stunning fundraising numbers is the most old-fashioned weapon in any campaign's arsenal: message.
Dean has been able to build a following and raise the bar on per-quarter fundraising not by working his friendships with wealthy trial lawyers, relying on decades of contacts with the rich and powerful, or building the best Internet-based campaign American politics has yet seen. He's done it by steadfastly promoting a pugnacious, optimistic, forward-looking message and by coupling it with a campaign organization smart enough to let his supporters help him. In the post-McCain-Feingold world, the Democratic Party has struggled to figure out how to attract small-sum donors: In the last election cycle, 64 percent of donations less than $200 went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, while Democrats grew fat and sick on big money from those who gave more than $1 million. Dean has cracked the nut and done what six months ago looked to be impossible: He has figured out how to compete based on donations the size of the fat cats' monthly Starbucks expenditures.
Welcome to Dean's world. We all will live in it.
On Dean's blog, the message-board threads have acted as constant, ongoing, real-time focus groups for everything the governor says and does. The campaign takes it all in. Plenty of ideas adopted by the campaign start out on the threads of the Dean blogs, say Dean campaign aides, and the Dean for America Internet team is constantly updating and modifying the site in response to the posts. To follow the blog is to watch the campaign unfold in real time with a startling level of intimacy and transparency; it is to enter a freewheeling, unending conversation where thousands and thousands of Dean's supporters chew over every aspect of his campaign and strategy, message and image, policies and past record.
In this world, whatever the mainstream press is saying about Dean's role as the campaign's angry candidate is rejected. His supporters say that they are drawn to him because they find his message inspiring, upbeat, honest and forward-looking -- and because it makes them feel strong again....
Most of all, these people seemed to be supporting Dean because other people they know and trust are supporting Dean. The Internet campaign magnifies the voices of friends and relatives above the voices of the famous or the powerful.
