Howard Dean All Over Again?

OBAMA USING SIMILAR METHODS, MESSAGE TO RAISE MONEY

FITSNews – July 1, 2007 - Lost in the hype over Illinois Senator Barack Obama‘s $32.5 million fundraising juggernaut this quarter (editor’s note: ka-ching) is the remarkable similarity between the way Obama is currently raising money and the way former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential flameout Howard Dean raised money four years ago. Obama – like Dean before him – is tapping thousands of small donors, using the Internet as a primary fundraising vehicle and hammering home a message of radical change to the status quo in Washington D.C.

Thusfar over 258,000 people have responded by contributing to Obama’s campaign – including 1,500 new contributors a day over the last three months. This groundswell of grassroots support has helped Obama outraise his chief Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in each of the last two fundraising quarters, at least as far as money that can be spent on the nomination fight is concerned. The “Obama Phenomena” has also pretty much put a lid on the presidential prospects of John Edwards, who raised just $9 million this quarter and is trailing both Obama and Clinton in most national polls – as well as in his home state of South Carolina, which he won in 2004.

We haven’t taken a poll on this or anything, but our bet is the percentage of Dean voters putting their chips down on Obama is pretty high right at the moment. Now all Obama has to do is avoid completely flipping out on live TV if he finishes second in an early primary …