July 2, 2007

Obama, Clinton & Deep Throat

"Deep Throat" was a character in the All the President's Men book and movie. One of the famous quotes attributed to "Deep Throat" was 'Follow the Money!'. That is a good rule to apply in presidential politics. Check out the 2nd quarter financial reports from the major presidential candidates in the Democratic Party:
  1. Barack Obama - $ 32.5 million
  2. Hilary Clinton - $ 27.0 million
  3. John Edwards - $ 9.0 million
One of the amazing aspects of Obama's 3-month fundraising totals is that it consists of over 250,000 donors ... in fact over 90% of his contributions are $100 or less. Obama seems to be slowly and surely making his way in this political marathon. His campaign appears to be taking care of business in a quiet and professional manner. The money rolling in means that Hilary Clinton is *not* the inevitable nominee that her supporters keep telling us about.

I didn't talk about the debate moderated on PBS last week by Tavis Smiley. Personally, I thought that Clinton won the debate. However, I'm convinced that Obama isn't a 30-second sound-byte brother. He was born in Hawaii. They are a laid back community. Obama is a laid back brother at his core. He simply needs more time to get his answers out then the PBS-Smiley debate allowed him to have. I suspect that he will shine more as the lower-tier candidates drop out of the race and the debates get whittled down to a one-on-one battle between him & Hillary.

Anyhow, I was amazed by the continued prowess that Obama is having with fundraising. As they say, 'Follow the Money!'

8 comments:

Keli said...

That's nice...I'm still not convinced...not no the Obama train as of yet.

Paula D. said...

I bet jaws have been dropping everywhere! 2008 will be interesting indeed.....I still think that Obama & Hilary need to stop playing and get on the same ticket.

maryt/theteach said...

Villager, you know that Deep Throat was helping Woodward and Bernstein untangle the Watergate scandal and ultimately bring down the Nixon presidency. "Follow the money" isn't the best slogan because it suggests shady doings and deals. Not that I'm suggesting anything about Obama. I like him a lot, but I'm saying the slogan suggests that.

Happy Fourth!

Foofa said...

I'm really excited for Obama. I am certainly excited about the 08 prospects!

Eddie G. Griffin said...

The closer the race, the more leverage for the AfroSpear.

Unknown said...

Keli - This could be the perfect storm for a revolution in America if both a Blackman (not Clinton!) or a woman get elected to the White House. With the Scooter Libby pardon this week it seems more and more as if the Republicans have little chance to win a national election in 2008. Bush-fatigue. Time for someone new. Why not Bro' Obama?

Paula - Hilary and Barack on the same Democratic ticket! Dayum ... that would be remarkable. Do you think that Hilary would say 'yes' if asked to be Barack's vice presidential candidate?

Teach - I responded to you earlier via email. Suffice to say that I wasn't inferring anything scandalous to the Obama campaign. I think I just enjoyed writing DEEP THROAT and CLINTON in the same headline (smile)!

Natalie - I agree with you. It is likely that I will be posting more on the election as we get closer to the Iowa & New Hampshire primaries. Obama needs to win one or both of 'em for the country to recognize...

Eddie - One Nation Under an AfroSpear!

peace, Villager

Anonymous said...

Villager!

As you pointed out, the most significant thing about Obama's $$$ count isn't so much how much he has managed to raise, but the broad base of financial support/ It is much larger than Hillary's, and that is significant because it means Obama can keep going back to a number of his donors for more money, whereas Hillary, most of whose donors are "big money" players, aren't as likely to be repeat donors. They usually drop their load one time and that's it.

This will become much more interesting come next year. That's when the significance of all this will really become apparent.

Believer said...

"One of the amazing aspects of Obama's 3-month fundraising totals is that it consists of over 250,000 donors ... in fact over 90% of his contributions are $100 or less."

The working class folk have spoken!

Deep throat and Clinton together...we've ALL heard that before. Nasty!