Lump of Money?

Jerome Armstrong and Ed Kilgore talk about the Q1 fundraising numbers. The previous record was $8.9 million for Al Gore in 1999. John Edwards is far surpassing that with a $14 million haul and he's not even doing very well. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pulled in $22 million and $26 million respectively, plus Clinton gets to add $10 million already raised from her Senate account.

The moral of the story, I think, is the clearest possible indication that there isn't some fixed pool of "progressive money" that has to be fought over. Clearly, eight years of increasing levels of progressive political mobilization and progressive institution building have, combined with three candidates who each have strong appeal, are able to produce a vastly expanded pool of donations from what was out there in 1999. I think it's too bad that the frontrunner continues to be a weak choice for the nomination whose appeal, though real, doesn't really appeal to me, but it's hard not to be excited about the general ferment of people engaging with the process.