Rove on the Presidential Campaign #
Karl Rove’s Wall Street Journal editorial doesn’t exactly have novel analysis for those following the elections closely, but for anyone not doing so (99% of America) it’s a useful rundown of what’s happened.
- Technology allows a candidate to raise money quickly and inexpensively. The Internet dramatically shortens the gap between political success and raising money. Under the old regime, members of the finance committee would start calling a few days after a successful debate and FedEx’ing the checks. Mail pieces might hit 10 days later. Fundraising required events with weeks of advance notice. Today, if you do well in a debate on Tuesday night you can begin raising large sums of money Wednesday morning. Effective fundraising can be a mouse-click away.
That point was clarified this morning by Barack Obama’s announcement of having raised 32 million in January alone.