Comments on: Money talks

By: Dave F

Dave F — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:18:42 +0000

I get the impression that Glenn Reynolds does not regard himself as a Republican. I know he has a libertarian position on various issues. I suspect he might vote Democrat .

By: Ian Whitchurch

Ian Whitchurch — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:11:06 +0000

The blogsphere allows specific focus in an unbelievable timetable – if Kos and co are convinced that Candidate X needs a cold grand an hour, every hour for fourty-eight hours to win, they can get it to them. The example is Ben Chandler in Kentucky. I’ll quote Josh Marshall … “But another part of the story is Internet fundraising. As you’ll notice there on the left, the Chandler campaign has been advertising for about the last two weeks on this and a number of other blogs. The campaign budgeted about two grand for blog advertising. And my understanding is that by today they had raised close to $100,000 from contributors who linked through from those blogs on which the campaign was advertising. ” Two thousand down, and a fortnight later there’s a hundred grand in the kitty. This is as important a political development as Lyndon Johnson’s links to the Texas independant oilmen, back in the 1940s, and for exactly the same reasons.

By: Ian Whitchurch

Ian Whitchurch — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:10:46 +0000

The blogsphere allows specific focus in an unbelievable timetable – if Kos and co are convinced that Candidate X needs a cold grand an hour, every hour for fourty-eight hours to win, they can get it to them. The example is Ben Chandler in Kentucky. I’ll quote Josh Marshall … “But another part of the story is Internet fundraising. As you’ll notice there on the left, the Chandler campaign has been advertising for about the last two weeks on this and a number of other blogs. The campaign budgeted about two grand for blog advertising. And my understanding is that by today they had raised close to $100,000 from contributors who linked through from those blogs on which the campaign was advertising. ” Two thousand down, and a fortnight later there’s a hundred grand in the kitty. The blogsphere allows specific focus – if Kos and co are convinced that Candidate X needs a cold grand an hour, every hour for fourty-eight hours to win, they can get it to them. This is as important a political development as Lyndon Johnson’s links to the Texas independant oilmen, back in the 1940s, and for exactly the same reasons.

By: ervan

ervan — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 05:16:55 +0000

I think that the reason many “liberal” bloggers are aligning this election is GW. In the past, the lefties haven’t been as motivated to participate in establishment politics and GW has motivated them to practicality rather than an interest in raising money for the Dem machine.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 14:52:51 +0000

Either Kos or Josh Marshall blogged to the effect that internet appeals map well to Democratic donors, while Republicans seem more inclined to plump for direct mail. There wasn’t much theory on why, just the observation. Given the efficiency of internet fundraising, this seems a net win for the Ds.

By: Rich Puchalsky

Rich Puchalsky — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 13:52:56 +0000

Most of the high-readership liberal bloggers will naturally move into journalism, as Kevin Drum is doing, or perhaps professional political consulting, as Kos did. I would guess that the best predictor for whether a liberal blogger will become a long-term Democratic Party donation center, without being an actual worker for the party, is whether they are pseudonymous now.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 06:56:33 +0000

Atrios, the Beatle of bloggers, may be a special case – today, as he notes, somebody sent him a Tivo. I think I’ll funnel my Kerry contributions through him, though. The cash I pushed at Clinton in times past only got me requests for more. This way my offerings are watermarked: diehard liberal, internet addict.

By: praktike

praktike — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 05:12:28 +0000

Don’t forget the massive wingnut online communities like FreeRepublic.com. They may be functionally illiterate, but they are highly partisan, and I imagine they’ll give.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 04:42:22 +0000

So is it interesting that one of the top ten bloggers (Kevin Drum’s Calpundit) has signed onto a commercial contract with the Washington Monthly? This is not to cast aspersions or even suspicions on Kevin or the magazine; I honestly have none. But I would guess that Kevin could no longer do the fund-raising that Atrios does. But it might raise questions about the future independence/audience/influence of the blogosphere.