Dean... the RNC's best friend

[Embar Angylwrath]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co ... _mz013.htm

Dude can't pull in the money McAullife did. Guess "YEEAARRRGH" doesn't work to well as a response when you're asked why you should contribute to the party.

[Ddrak]

Seems to still be doing well at a "grass roots" level, but not with the big corporate donations. Hard to judge how that's going to end up - especially as corporations don't vote.

Dd

[Relbeek Einre]

Howard Dean was a huge fundraising phenomenon at the grassroots level. Jury's still out.

[Embar Angylwrath]

And he stil is a good grass-roots fundraiser. But he's alienated a large portion of big donors. And that is where the real money is.

[Ddrak]

Which raises the interesting question - is less corporate money a good or bad thing for a political party?

Dd

[Akhbarali]

Which raises the interesting question - is less corporate money a good or bad thing for a political party?

Dd

It is not just bad, it is disastrous under the current rules.

Akhbar

[Ddrak]

Well, yeah, in terms of being able to spew propoganda sure. I was more thinking that not being tied to corporate donations could free a party to do a lot more good for the country, but that's just the inner hippie in me I guess. Remind me to repress it some more.

Dd

[Partha]

And he stil is a good grass-roots fundraiser. But he's alienated a large portion of big donors. And that is where the real money is.

However, one can make the point that chasing big corporate donors hasn't won them elections.

[Embar Angylwrath]

And he stil is a good grass-roots fundraiser. But he's alienated a large portion of big donors. And that is where the real money is.

However, one can make the point that chasing big corporate donors hasn't won them elections.

That's not the same as identifying what lost them elections.

[Partha]

It might be what lost them elections - after all, they chased corporate money by adopting a more pro business stance under Clinton - they threw minorities and unions under the bus, so to speak.

[Burz]

Seems to still be doing well at a "grass roots" level, but not with the big corporate donations.
Dd

Soros/527 will make up for it.

[Eidolon Faer]

Actually, it wasn't chasing corporate money per se, it was chasing George Soros' money, this past election.

I wonder if we're going to start seeing anaerobic bacteria signing $1,000 checks to the political candidate of their choice. It's only a few more rounds of Campaign Finance "Reform" away...

Besides, the damage Dean is doing to the DNC is hardly in the arena of fundraising. That's just a symptom of the larger disease. The REASON Dean is alienating corporate donors can be easily explained by his rhetoric as a political candidate:

Dean is perceived as an extreme example of the anti-business, pro-socialist mentality that is common among folks on the left. And the "yeeaarrrgghhh!" didn't help much either. Corporations "vote" (ie write checks) in their own best interests, much like individuals do, and a mentally-unstable socialist revolutionary firebrand is not going to inspire their confidence.

Frankly, if they'd set up a blue-ribbon panel, I doubt the Dems could have found a worse choice from among the pool of eligible candidates. Dean makes a far better candidate than he does a DNC chair.

[Partha]

Actually, you can consider what chasing the corporate money did for them - outside of Clinton's two terms (and believe it or not, he wasn't THAT liberal, whatever his wife is), they lost both houses. They have a national presence as being a series of check off boxes rather than a party.

And, you know, if you actually LOOKED at Dean's record, he's hardly anti-business. Which really points to the strength of the Right Wing Noise Machine you all claim doesn't exist..

[Chants Evensong]

Exactly, Burz.

527's are the Mack Truck that politicians have learned to drive through a gaping Russ-Feingold loop-hole.