What Was Really Behind The Appeal?

by Steve Soto

"One hundred million dollars this June — it’s definitely within reach."
--Wade Randlett, a large Obama fundraiser, on June 9th

After McCain had his best fundraising month in June ($22 million), there are reports in the Wall Street Journal that Obama's June totals will come in just above $30 million, a report the campaign disputes but will not correct until they report the actual number next week. Notably, there is a pre-emptive excuse circulating from the campaign and into the media as to why his fundraising is down: it's Hillary's fault.

One reason Sen. Obama's fundraising machine has shown signs of wear in recent weeks is the campaign's difficulty in getting former Hillary Clinton supporters to contribute.

Obama has been trying to bridge gaps with his primary rival, and is helping her retire her debt. But this has created heartache among his supporters, the Washington Post reports. "It's a challenge," James Hudson, a Washington lawyer and Obama fund-raiser, told the Post. "Now you have to make two asks instead of one. In my mind, the primary goal here should be to raise money for Barack's campaign."

This is a crock. Let's look at some of the possible reasons one-by-one.

1. The primary campaign is over and with Hillary vanquished, his donors are hibernating. This is quite plausible, but his fundraising has been going down steadily since he pulled past her in the delegate race and since he and his campaign fed the narrative that he was the presumptive nominee.

2. It's the fault of her donors for not doing their share. Sorry, no sale. His numbers have been dropping for months before her donors were part of his equation, and now it's the fault of her donors that donations from his donors are dropping? Besides, there are reports that his efforts in this area have left her fundraisers cold.

3. His donors don't like helping out Hillary. This could be the case with his large donors, but if this is the case with his millions of small donors, the party has far bigger problems.

4. His recent actions on FISA and other issues has chilled his donors. There's evidence of this in the expected places, but does that really explain the downward trend since the spring?

From the time he pulled past her and built the image of a presumptive nominee, there has been a clear downward trend in his fundraising. So how much of Obama's appeal and fundraising success was the result of anti-Clintonism?

Image courtesy of the Washington Post