Study: Obama's Small Donor Base Image A Myth

Los Angeles Times:

Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.

Except, it turns out, that's not really true.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[sandals]

He won and I am part of the myth, you know one of the small donors.

[PennP]

Amazing. Obama's not even president, yet his voters have already become mythological.

[doctorwang]

I donated. Hopefully they will sculpt a statue of me with a toga and a b!tchin' sword.

[rollingdivision]

Now that the election is over, now the someone will look at the amount of illegal foreign cash.

[doctorwang]

Just did.....everything looks fine. No problems. A-okay. You can relax now.

[rollingdivision]

The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) study disclosed that Barack Obama actually raised most of his campaign money from “larger” not “smaller” donors. He just another politician.

[Bitsko]

You think a non-politician could get anywhere in this country? Mr. 0bama may be a "another politician," but he's not any I've seen in my lifetime.

[wanj]

CFI is irrelevant... what's their definition of a small donor? I guess even though I don't much $ but donated in increments of $100 or $200 per month I'd a big donor? This article is pure BS!

[AlwaysaLiberal]

Well of course he's a politician. Everyone that's ever run for president has been a politician. What's your point? I guess I must be a millionaire since I donated about 150 dollars to his campaign over time.

[Liberoservative]

The election is over folks....

Repubs need to start looking at why they lost instead of why Obama won... they will see that the Nation finallly got sick of their elitist propaganda and divisive strategy and tactics...

Obama was one who showed us that there really was another way to go and we embrace UNITY over divisiveness....

If the Repubs want to continue in their exclusive ways then they will be wandering in the desert for many many years.....

It is time to realize that we (dems and repubs) have ONE agenda and that is to make this nation and its people as great and prosperous as we can.......

This is Obama's vision and one that I wholeheartedly endorse and have lived by my entire life....

[OtayPanky]

Study: Obama's Small Donor Base Image A "Myth"

===

Another urban legend laid to rest.

[loveobamas]

LOOK I CAN CARE LESS IF IT IS A MYTH OF FACT.
I'M JUST HAPPY HE WON,I'M STILL FIRED UP!!!!

[Emlyn]

SO AM I!!!!!!!

[CindyKay]

I Do Not Care What They Say ! They Can Kiss My A Double S!

I Am Just D>A>M>N>E>D Glad He Won !

[saber75]

You guys....let them have their comfort. They lost and they lost big so they need some sort of lie to convince themselves that Obama somehow cheated; well Obama cheated his way to victory by claiming he had lots of small donors (although every reasonable person knows this is true). The only reason why he was able to raise so much money in the first place, in addition to the traditional large money donors, was from the SMALL time donors or donors who have NEVER donated before.

So let them have their delusion so that they won't learn when it comes to 2012. They'll just repeat the mistakes of the past.

[Kakie]

Obama's campaign was a brilliantly-executed pr campaign...Now we find out that they hid the truth from us...

The press and public never really bothered to look into his major donors, the majority of whom, at the beginning, 62 % of whom gave $1,000 or more, and 46% of whom gave the max during the primaries--$2,300.

In September 2008, alone, Obama raised $150 million. Figuring the U.S. population at 300 million or so, that would mean that every man, woman, and child in America, would, on the average, have to give $500,000 to his campaign, which is impossible. Where do people think this money came from?

Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago investment banker with ties to the huge Mayor Daley Chicago machine, is now Obama's chief of staff...

Add it all up....Unfortunately it doesn't bode well for us "little guys."

Where was the press during the primaries? Why wasn't this donor info. brought out then?

[Actionmac]

your math is so bad you really don't deserve a full response.... 300 million people giving $1 dollar would have given Obama 300 million... think about it.

[doctorwang]

LOL. Repugs have their own little mathematical system.

"You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math. I'm entitled to THE math." - Karl Rove

[Actionmac]

BTW, in the case your speaking of it would be "little minds"

[PennP]

"In September 2008, alone, Obama raised $150 million. Figuring the U.S. population at 300 million or so, that would mean that every man, woman, and child in America, would, on the average, have to give $500,000 to his campaign, which is impossible. Where do people think this money came from?"

Sweetie, Hank Paulson needs you.

Ahem. 300,000,000 x $500,000 = $150,000,000,000,000. That's $150 TRILLION. Not million. Not even billion. TRILLION. To deliver $150M to Obama in September, each of us would have had to chip in 50 cents apiece. I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn't fork over those four bits to our prez-elect, but what the heck, I covered you.

Hank's awaitin'......

[lizziekw]

It was brought out then, I remember it clearly. We've always known the "small donors take over American politics" thing was a myth.

It doesn't matter. The fiction was useful to the campaign narrative. The campaign is now over and we move on.

[MossyOak]

Alas, Kakie, your math is as bad as your logic.

[AndrewInToronto]

If everyone gave, then it would be 50 cents per person.

[KathyinCT]

I took a number of graduate stats courses and learned a lot about what you can do to mislead with numbers.

In this case, the KEY numbers are surprisingly absent -- wonder why? (Perhaps because Mr. Malcolm would have had no story if he'd been thorough, or straightforward).

The point about small donors was NEVER about the overall amount of dollars raised -- it was about the number of Americans who contributed.

So working with some dummy numbers, since Malcolm forgot to say how many donors there were in each category, you can get a more accurate picture.

Let's say the small donors, on average, gave $100 (some gave $25, some gave $199, etc.). So if that group gave a total of $119 million, that means there were 1,190,000 donors in that group. More than ONE MILLION Americans were small donors.

Look at the $210,000, 000 raised by the "bigger" donors -- and assume a $1,000 gift per person, and youve got 210,000 "bigger donors." Or make their gifts $2,000, which is still probably too small, and it's 105,000 bigger donors -- compared to 1.1 MILLION smaller donors.

And THAT is the point, and the story. Small donors in the aggregate may not have generated more dollars -- but there were 400% more small donors than big donors.

Next time, Mr. Malcolm and LA Times, tell the whole story, with all the facts, and quit trying to mislead your readers.

[PennP]

Mr. Malcolm also seems to be using the federal database for his facts, and I've nevef found it entirely accurate or up to date. But apart from that, he does mention that Obama had 452,852,990 net individual contributions to McCain's 204,436,971, and that in the same category the Kerry and Bush figures for '04 were about 214M and 256M, respectively.

Oddly, I could find no link to the primary study data on the CFI website, just the press release. If someone can unearth the full study, a link would be appreciated!

[AndrewInToronto]

Precisely, Kathy, and the total number of donors was a stat conveniently absent from the 'myth' article -- rather the preference was for percentages rather than base figures.

[gobarackgo]

I never gave a penny to a political campaign in my life. During President-elect Obama's campaign, I gave $100 per month for 22 months. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of other people stepped up for the first time as well. That's the remarkable part of the story. Not the size of the contributions.

[Actionmac]

Thank you for saying this because I and some I know did like you $100-$150 a month to achive this goal. For someone to say I did not is ok, they will be slammed again with the grassroots getting stronger. continue to mislead those that want to hear the lies because they refuse to accept the truth that is what won this election.

[TrueThis]

LA Times has flipped flopped through out the campaign within both parties during the primary and the general elections. I don't believe their hype.

[Serious Lee]

The logic is not flowing. It is, seriously, flawed!

Sending regular payments of $25 per paycheck or $50 per month does not make me "large donor". It makes me committed donor.

Of course, only, those out of touch with the common man, (who often pays on installment) would not understand this principle.

[kmdippenger]

So the cumulative amount of $5-$25 donations over the course of 12 months makes me one of the big guys.. what a joke..I was using my pizza/movie money!

[Geranium]

As if anyone thought it WAS really true.

[bygollymissmolly]

It is true. This article is nothing other than cherry picking the facts to make something seem true. They have defined a "big" donor as someone who donated more than $200. There are many small donors who, over the course of the campaign, donated more than $200 to Obama. These are still small donors. When someone has 3.5 million people donate to his campaign for an average donation of $86, that's what is important. Our new President is beholden to the people in this country not the corporations.