A line buried deep within this New York Times story about Barack Obama's apparent fundraising slowdown jolts the attentive, politically savvy reader with this admission:
David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, said the majority of the Obama campaign’s donors during the primary had yet to write checks for the general election. When they do, he said, it will be the equivalent of the large injection of cash the McCain campaign is receiving from the government — about $70 million or $80 million.
“We’re confident that we will meet our financial goals, but it’s hard work,” Mr. Plouffe said. “We have a long way to go in the next six weeks.”
Others are in fact writing about this but I haven't seen much in what fellow HuffingtonPost bloggers call the "Mainstream Media" about the implications of the fact the "majority" of Obama primary donors haven't given again yet. The much-discussed decision to reject public funding is predicated on the campaign maintaining the super-charged participation of new, and newly energized, voters. If all of a sudden Obama has to raise money like every other candidate has done, relying on the usual Democrats and high dollar donors, he's in trouble. It's like
David Plouffe must be congratulating himself for getting to put out this alarming factoid in the middle of a postive-spin quote to the New York Times. It's always a good idea when trying to avoid unpleasant subjects with the press to let the bad news slip with a positive gloss in a personal quote. What's that formula for handling problems that could, say, lead to impeachment?
"Tell it early, tell it all, tell it yourself." Well, David, two out of three aint bad. You told it yourself, however obliquely, and you told it early, before a big filing date later this month. But did you tell it all?
How many people exactly are in that "majority" you don't have? 55 percent? 65? 80?
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