Remember the now infamous speech Barack Obama gave behind closed doors at a fundraiser in San Francisco where the meme "Bittergate" developed?
Beyond Bittergate, another nugget has emerged from that same speech that Chris Chiasson has unearthed through his close listening to the audio of Barack's speech which is worth noting in this space.
As transcribed by Chris (emphasis and line-breaks to aid readability mine):
Starting at 14 minutes and 50 seconds:
I want to make a point about fund raising because I think it is illustrative of what else is going on. We raised 55 million dollars last month. ... I'm sorry. We raised 55 million in February; we raised 40 million that last month. Now, these are gaudy numbers. But, what's interesting is not the amount raised. 90% of what we raised came over the Internet. 50% were for $50 or less. Our average donation is less than $100.
Now, essentially what we've done is we've created a parallel public financing system. That using the Internet and mobilizing people all across the country - over 1.3 million donors - we've created a system where ordinary people can actually finance, can fuel, a campaign at the highest levels.
It's the same way that we've competed organizationally. We didn't have all the fancy endorsements early on. We remember - you know, we had some courageous endorsements from Barbara Williams and some other folks - but most of the big names here in ... California went the other way. And yet, we were able to compete everywhere.
Why is that? Essentially, groups formed themselves using technology. We have an Open Source system. For people to just grab onto good ideas. They start organizing their neighbors, organizing their friends. And, next thing you knew, we'd built the best political organization in the country. And that's what we have. I mean, we have the best national political organization that anybody has seen in a generation.
This realization by Barack that his success is due (at least partly) to the connectivity of the Internet is important.
There is a Revolution taking hold of American politics. I only fear that this Revolution continues to thrive on the wrong side of the aisle.
We continue to have work to do. I hope you're with me.
Comments
I think Obama really
I think Obama really owes most of his success to the McGovern commission. The other part of his rapid rise is what Shelby Steele refers to bargaining and being the "candidate of destiny." This emotional appeal coupled with an institutional difference are more powerful than any Web 2.0 tool. Without which he would have been doing only moderately better than Ron Paul. As they say Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line.
It will be interesting to see how these technologies come into play in the future when all the demographics shift. But I think the old-fashioned principles always wins. Isn't that part of the conservative message?
Republicans should instead be articulating the meaning of conservatism and in an approachable common sense way. You can attract more newcomers with the soft power of influence. I think there are more undiscovered conservatives in new immigrant groups. And I think the younger voters will get a nice dose of reality when they have to start paying the bill for all these entitlement programs Baby Boomers will be sucking dry.
The flip side of all this open source politics is that "essentially groups formed themselves" And that can be very problematic when everyone controls the message. When you delegate all that authority to the little people you are held hostage to their whims. Which is essentially why the Democratic Party has had so many problems. It's a big umbrella for so many radically different groups who all want their needs met immediately. Where is the order and priorities? Who wants to be a bound man?
I'd also wait a couple years after their is an investigation into the funding of his campaign. I think we'll see a lot of bundling and outside influence. He has strange relationships with terrorist friendly pan-african nationalists.
Just my 2 cents.
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