Republicans, who once were far ahead of Democrats in whizbang TV technology, let their party fall behind the nerd curve as Howard Dean and later John Kerry revolutionized and then exploited online fund-raising in 2004. Four years later, the Democrats have widened that gap, using the Internet not only to raise cash but also to organize canvassers and plot get-out-the-vote efforts. Republicans say the Democrats' Web advantage is due to not just greater enthusiasm but also smarter strategies...
Um, the last time I checked, John Kerry lost the 2004 election and the reason why the Democrats are currently raising large amounts cash online is because they being forced to do so by the two battling contenders for the nomination. Almost all of that money is being poured into a contentious Democrat primary fight, not the general election where it will really count. McCain isn't raising as much money online as Clinton or Obama because he doesn't need to. Apparently Scherer and Newton-Hall are overlooking the inconvenient fact that McCain no longer has any primary opponents. Instead they use the advantage of not having primary opponents which would force McCain to raise primary cash into some sort of disadvantage:
...Though both Democrats have shown the ability to raise big money online, McCain has been struggling to catch Internet fever. While his rivals rake in bundles of cash in small-dollar checks, McCain makes the rounds of hotel ballrooms, charming wealthy donors with traditional chicken dinners and fruit-platter mixers. In March he attended 26 fund raisers in 24 cities, raising about $15 million, with roughly one-third of it coming from the Web. Obama attended just six events in the same period, yet his campaign raised three times as much, 2 mostly online.
Almost as amusing as Time's complete avoidance of the tough Democrat primary battle as the reason for the candidates desperately raising money online to fight each other, not Republicans, is the fact that Time comes as close as it ever will in calling Barack Obama a liar for breaking his pledge to accept public campaign financing:
While McCain apparently intends to accept about $84 million in public financing after he is nominated, Obama has been moving in the opposite direction. After once vowing to take public money, he now calls his online fund-raising machine a "parallel public-financing system," which is convenient because it has no upper limit...
Once again, I need to channel the voice of the late comedian Sam Kinison in urging Time to write the word we use for people who break their vows...Say it! SAY IT!!!
