Online fundraising seems to work best when underlying receptivity to a message combines with a sense of urgency. Thus, last week, immediately after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his VP pick, his campaign received a huge wave of donations — $4.5 million in the first 24 hours, reportedly. That was the Republican base waking up.
Now, I suspect we are going to see an even bigger haul for Barack Obama today and tomorrow. If the Palin pick woke up the conservative evangelical community that, until now, was lukewarm on McCain, the hard-edged speeches from last night’s Republican convention, which were watched widely (compared to Tuesday night, when GOP ratings slumped) by voters of all stripes, are not just firing up the Right.
A glance at Twitter users mentioning the words “Obama” and “donation” gives you a flavor of what is going on:
– @Carleenbrice tweets: “Woke up @ 4 pissed about how condescending Palin was. Just gave to a donation to the Obama campaign to express my anger.”
– @dieactordie wrote: “Thank you SaPal! I just made a donation to Obama. You sure are energizing the base!”
I also have a hunch that Palin and Giuliani’s attacks on community organizers are also going to fire up a very important constituency on Obama’s behalf. A new Facebook group called “We are all community organizers” got launched last night, and its membership have been growing rapidly. The danger in stirring up this particular nest is that community organizers are network hubs, and while not all of them are involved in electoral work (often their jobs prevent direct partisan activity), this direct attack on their dignity may well push many of them into taking leaves of absence and going to work to help Obama.
The Obama campaign’s own email response was also interesting, in this respect. David Plouffe wrote:
I wasn’t planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response.
I saw John McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign.
But worst of all — and this deserves to be noted — they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process.
You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say, everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we come together. Make a donation of $5 or more right now to remind them.
Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.
Let’s clarify something for them right now.
Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies. [Emphasis in original]
And it’s no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.
Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America’s promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it’s happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.
Meanwhile, we still haven’t gotten a single idea during the entire Republican convention about the economy and how to lift a middle class so harmed by the Bush-McCain policies.
Etc. You get the idea. An old friend of mine, Janice Fine, is a veteran community organizer, and she uses the following role-play when she teaches other organizers how to organize. She pulls a person from the audience and then starts pushing them aggressively, while asking the person and the audience, “What do you do when you’re being pushed around by a bully? What do you do? Huh?” Sooner or later someone answers, “You get your friends to help fight back.” And a few people walk up to help push Janice back.
That’s what’s happening now. Sarah Palin’s elevation first generated a big response for McCain, but the Republican attacks on the heart of Obama’s campaign — community organizing — is going to foster a huge response. I predict Obama will raise $10 million online today and tomorrow.
Welcome to the Thunderdome.
UPDATE: The NYTimes Caucus blog is reporting that Obama has already raised $8 million and is on track to raise $10M by tonight. With 130,000 people kicking in, that’s about $61 per donation, on average.
September 04, 2008