FEC, media can't handle Obama jackpot
The record-shattering fundraising by Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has reshaped the financing of presidential elections and generated breathless coverage and analysis of the otherwise arcane area of campaign finance. Yet it's had another consequence that has gone all but unnoticed. The campaign finance reports filed by Obama and Clinton have grown so massive that they've strained the capacity of the Federal Election Commission, good government groups, the media and even software applications to process and make sense of the data. A milestone of sorts was reached earlier this year, when Obama, the Illinois senator whose revolutionary online fundraising has overwhelmed Clinton, filed an electronic fundraising report so large it could not be processed by popular basic spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel 2003 and Lotus 1-2-3. Those programs can't download data files with more than 65,536 rows or 256 columns.
Imagine a Presidential candidate so flush that he can almost literally do what he wants, when he wants, and in whatever manner he wants to do it...because he has enough money to do it. Now imagine that this candidate is NOT a Republican...and you'd have Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who has taken grassroots fundraising to places it's never been before. Obama has built a fundraising juggernaut that's fundamentally different from traditional models in that it's almost completely dependent on small donations from many, many donors rather than large donations from wealthy individuals with significant disposable income. Obama's financial support may be only an inch deep, but the fact that it's a mile wide puts him in a place that no other Presidential candidate has ever been.
From a personal perspective, it's tremendously satisfying to realize that the candidate I endorsed way back in August is about to become the Democratic nominee. Even more satisfying is the understanding that this success was not built on selling his soul to Big Business. Do the right thing in the right way...and for the right reasons...and eventually success will find you. I believe that when Sen. Obama is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on 1.20.09, it will be in large part because he made a conscious decision to take the road less travelled in building a nationwide coalition of people instead of corporations and wealthy interests.
The Obama campaign has become so skilled at using the Internet that their successes have far outstripped anything the McCain or Clinton campaigns have been able to accomplish...and there's no dark secrets or skullduggery involved. The Obama campaign has simply recognized the potential and successfully adapted to the fundraising possibilities of the Internet. They were the first ones at the party, and they've taken advantage of the possibilities in a way that neither the Clinton nor McCain campaigns have even begun to approach. (Can you say "McCain-Feingold"?? Don'tcha just LOVE irony??)
WE DESERVE BETTER...and it appears we may well be close to getting exactly that.
