Friday, September 25, 2009
Fundraising: An Interesting Update
Some interesting links, all courtesy of Instapundit:
From the Washington Post:
Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party's harsh rhetoric about big business.
And from the L.A. Times:
Now, the guns of August have produced a surge in the fortunes of Republican causes. According to an analysis by USA Today, GOP campaign committees out-raised Democrats by $1.7 million in August.
"Republicans have been able to tap into some of the anger against Democrats in power and translate that into fundraising," Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report told the paper. "There are a lot of Republicans who wish the election were this November, not November 2010, because they feel like the momentum is on their side now."
Do I attach any importance to these figures? No. Fundraising figures for one month do not a trend make; the Democrats have plenty of time to surge ahead, and the Republicans have plenty of time to shoot themselves in both feet, before November 2010. Having more funds, too, is certainly no guarantee of victory.
I do think it's interesting, though, particularly in light of the many overly-confident pundits who, very recently, were announcing the Death of Conservatism.
I attach more importance, frankly, to the fact that the poll numbers for President Obama's health-care-reform agenda have not moved, in spite of an unprecedented Presidential effort to address the people.
In the succinct words of one blogger:
At this point, it seems safe to say that the public has heard the president. They simply do not believe him.
