Obama's `Gigantic' Donor List May Make Him Democratic Party's Power Broker

[Purveyor]

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama's supporters are giving him more than just record amounts of cash. They also are providing personal information that may make his donor list the most powerful tool in U.S. politics.

Even if the Democratic presidential candidate doesn't succeed in his White House bid, this data will make Obama a power broker in the party for years to come. For the interest groups or Democratic candidates he chooses to sell it to, it would provide a gold mine of information and access to potential donors.

Almost 2 million people have entered personal information on Obama pages on social-networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and his campaign's mybarackobama.com, offering home addresses, phone numbers, their views on specific issues and the names of friends. The data have allowed Obama, 46, to raise more than $200 million, fill sports arenas with supporters across the nation and motivate millions more with custom-tailored messages.

``It's gigantic,'' said Laura Quinn, chief executive officer of Catalist, a company that maintains a database of 280 million Americans. The list is as ``transformational'' as the advent of political advertising, she said.

Volunteering Information

The Illinois senator's biggest innovation is in persuading people to enter personal information directly on his campaign's Web site, according to Bill McIntyre, executive vice president of Grassroots Enterprise Inc., a Washington-based Internet marketing firm that advises campaigns.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aW_Qty8aiVTo&refer=home

[thereismore]

1. It will also help him become President. nt

[Bread and Circus]

2. You mean, us little people finally matter? Who woulda thunk it?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Don't let your head get big

No, we still don't matter. Universal single-payer health care is off the table. Our troops may not be withdrawn any time soon.

Peasants we are, and peasants we will remain!

:hi:

[MindMatter]

3. And it guarantees he is the nominee

There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth about how Clinton's petulant campaign is permanently damaging Obama.

There is certainly some truth to that. And there is also considerable truth that Clinton is making our nominee waste precious resources that would be much better spend against McCain.

But the biggest factor is that Clinton's refusal to accept her defeat is killing the DNC. Faced with a Clinton campaign that just refuses to die, Obama supports figure that any money they can donate at this stage needs to go to Obama, not the Party. That as left the Party in a very weakened state financially heading into the most important election cycle in 30 years -- not just for the Presidency, but for the tickets on all levels. It is one of those great, rare inflection points where we can completely change the landscape -- and Clinton has created the circumstances where the Party may not be able to capitalize on this opportunity.

Fortunately these donors and donations are not lost. They are just under Obama's control, and he -- completely unlike Clinton -- is fully committed to doing everything possible to build a governing majority in this country. That is why the Obama campaign and the DNC announced plans to work closely starting in May. The offer was made to Clinton, but her bankrupt campaign brings nothing to the table.

Obama really is in a position to take his ball and go home. We all know he would never do that, but this is the political reality. His campaign has $50M, but the donor list is worth $500M because most of us can give much more than we have so far. I will not give any money to the DNC if Obama is not the nominee, plain and simple. I will give generously if he is. And there are a couple million people just like me. Obama knows it. Dean knows it. Pelosi's club knows it. Everybody seems to know it except Hillary.

[Vinca]

5. Bingo. The list is the key. Not only will the votes go away if Obama

is denied the nomination, so will the mountains of money.

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

:thumbsup:

[PassingFair]

6. Just clipped my first donation to him to my mail box today!

Should have done it a lot earlier~

[GarbagemanLB]

7. Thank you!

[PassingFair]

9. You're welcome. He is our future...

if we're lucky!