The Crossed Pond

Just because I’m reading them all anyway. Some great quotes, some expressed surprise, some telling silences.

The Right’s Field:

2.2 Million. One Day.

Ron Paul’s campaign held a “moneybomb” event today. He’s reporting raising $2.2 million dollars.

Vanity campaigns on the order of Rep. Paul’s are supposed to be able to sustain themselves because they’re relatively cheap, driven by free media like debates, and without the resources to compete in a traditional way. Paul is running that type of campaign but actually getting more than enough money to make a real go at victory. I don’t see how he gets that done unless every paleoconservative in the country floods the polls, but consider that even in the true-blue areas of California that I inhabit, I see plenty of Ron Paul stickers. In this state, where the Republican primary is segmented by district, with 3 delegates up for grabs in each one, Paul is running in blue areas like San Francisco, where there are less Republicans to target. And in New Hampshire, as I’ve been noting, he’s tailor-made for the primary.

Nobody in EITHER party has approached raising two million online in a day (that’s more than McCain or Huckabee currently have in the bank, I think). This is not some wacko fringe campaign.

Or, how about the Left Field:

Of the many stories that surround this 2008 presidential campaign, one of the more interesting stories would be the amazing internet support that has been amassed by the campaign of Republican longshot Ron Paul.

[...]

Though, this is only natural given what we have already witnessed is a vehemently loyal and active internet organization. Not something to scoff at, while it doesn’t look like the site will reach its initial goal of ten million dollars, not counting the sum raised prior to Nov. fifth, raising close to the equivalent of his entire take for the third quarter in one day bodes rather well for the Paul campaign.

(note: the rest of that post isn’t very positive)

Andrew Sullivan:

$2.5 Million

Ron Paul hauls it in in a single day. And most Republicans are despondent that one of their number could generate such enthusiasm. Heh.

Politico:

[T]hat Paul can bring in nearly $2 million in about 12 hours attests to both his intense online support and the great fundraising possibilties that exist on the Web.

The American Spectator:

Moneybags Paul

After falling short of his October goal of $4 million, Ron Paul seems to have raised $2.2 million in an online fundraising drive so far today. If the numbers hold up, Paul is on target to beat his third quarter totals.

UPDATE: As the commenters point out, Paul has now exceeded his third quarter fundraising totals. At this writing, he is up to just shy of $2.7 million for the day and nearly $5.8 million for the quarter so far.

Reason:

Even if you don’t like Paul, you have to gasp at what’s happening in the GOP race. There are three phenomenons running in tandem: Paul’s fundraising, Huckabee’s cash-strapped poll surge, and McCain’s running-on-fumes poll comeback. Anybody working for the Rudy-Fred-Mitt power trio has to wonder why the Republican base is so hungry for these other choices. (Also, more reason to ignore the campaign finance reformers who whine about big money trumping ideas and good people in politics.)

The Campaign Spot (obligatory plug: help us compete with this for the “Best Political Coverage” 2007 Weblog Award by voting for us here:

Give the Ronulans/PaulBearers Credit, Their Money Is Where Their Mouths Are

Ron Paul has raised $1.9 million so far today.

When he’s finished – and he should finish well north of $2 million for the day, maybe in the neighborhood of $3 million – I wonder if any Republican presidential candidate will try to go toe-to-toe with this achievement with a special one-day fundraising drive…

The Liberty Papers:

Ron Paul’s supporters are doing a money bomb today, and it appears to be going rather well.

And, it’s helped raise the 4th Quarter fund-raising total by nearly 100% since October 31st, which fell short of the campaign’s $ 4 million per month goal by nearly half.

Nice job, although I don’t quite get the idea of doing this on a day that the Brits set aside to remember a guy who tried blow up Parliament.

Update: It’s now a little after 3pm on the East Coast and the 4th Quarter total has, apparently already exceeded the $ 5,000,000 that was raised in the 3rd Quarter, or about $ 2.3 million in one day. Yea, you’d be right if you said that holding back donations and dumping them all on one day like this is a publicity stunt, but its a good publicity stunt, the kind that’s likely to get the media to take notice again.

Slate’s Trailhead:

Paul’s indefatigable grassroots supporters are “moneybombing” the campaign today, partly to pay homage to Guy Fawkes, the bomber-with-a-cause featured in V for Vendetta, and partly just because they felt like it. As of this writing, Paul has already raised $2.5 million. That’s more than Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, and Duncan Hunter raised in the 3rd quarter, combined.

[...]

Paul, meanwhile, is enjoying the attention. His spokesman told me that he thinks the moneybomb is a “real neat idea.” If thousands of people gave me millions of dollars, I’d think it was pretty neat, too. A reality check to temper the Paul masses: It’s not all about the Benjamins. The campaign still needs voters to show up at the polls.

The always charming Wonkette blog:

Wasting obscene american resources on schmucks

Ron Paul Spambots Make Over $2.5 Million Today

This Modern World:

Ron Paul’s supporters are “moneybombing” his campaign today bringing in $2.5 million so far which brings him closer to Fred Thompson territory. Now that he’s bringing in the cash, his next big obstacle is trying to find Republicans who want to vote for him. They love the war, Ron Paul doesn’t. A grassroots fundraising stunt isn’t going to change that.

Real Clear Politics:

Don’t look now, but Ron Paul might have just raised the most money by a candidate on the Web in single day.

The Carpetbagger Report:

When it comes to the polls, Ron Paul can’t quite top 5% in any scientific state or national survey. But when it comes to fundraising, results like these sure are impressive.

[...]

As far as I can tell, that’s $2 million in just 12 hours, all from a fundraising initiative that the campaign had practically nothing to do with. (Apparently, Paul staffers didn’t even alert its email list to the drive.)

How does today’s haul match up compared to his rivals? Consider this: Paul has raised about as much in the last 12 hours as Mike Huckabee raised in nine months.

[...]

It’s precisely why I’ve long believed Paul is better suited for a third-party campaign. If anything today’s fundraising totals reinforce this, because it shows that Paul doesn’t necessarily need the GOP, he just needs his army of followers, who, I suspect, would gladly follow him out of the Republican Party.

TechRepublican:

Ron Paul has “made history,” raising more than $2.7 million in the past 16 hours from 21K supporters.

Agree with me or not, this is the Revolution I’ve been talking about. This will be the campaign that “proves” the importance of an effective Internet strategy to the naysayers and changes the game.

CNET:

I think it’s a darn strange thing for political activists in the United States to be using Guy Fawkes Night as an excuse for a special event in a Presidential campaign, but that’s just what some Ron Paul advocates have done.

[...]

(As an aside, the fact that these figures are available at all says a lot about the integration of computer technology with political campaigning. The Ron Paul organization offers a live feed of donation records which is summarized in real time on ronpaulgraphs.com.)

The campaign itself seems a little unprepared for this whole thing; in a blog post earlier today, campaign fundraising director Jonathan Bydlak didn’t even mention the Guy Fawkes connection. But he did say that the amount raised so far is already a record for Republican online fundraising, and it looks like the day’s total will exceed what Bydlak says is the all-time record for single-day fundraising: $3.1 million.

It’s all pretty amazing, anyway.

Atrios

Ron Paulmania

$2.2 million in one day…

This is a phenomenon I do not understand, but it isn’t getting nearly as much news coverage as it deserves.

MyDD:

This is a remarkable amount of money for a supposedly fringe candidate and is further evidence that Paul’s online support can be measured in real world metrics other than inordinately large support in non-binding online polls. Andrew Sullivan offers his take on what this online Paul uprising signifies:

Memo to today’s Republicans: some people still believe in your principles, even if you don’t.

More MyDD, via our old friend Jose Antonio Vargas:

Today, Nov. 5, marks not only Paul’s best fundraising haul in a single day — approximately $3.75 million by 11 p.m. EST — but online observers say it’s also the most money raised by a candidate on the Web in a single day. And the day’s not over yet. “Damn. Wow. Um, that’s pretty awesome,” said a stunned Jerome Armstrong who served as Howard Dean’s online strategist. Armstrong, the founder of the popular blog MyDD, said Dean raised as much as $700,000 in one day toward the end of the primary race. “But not a million,” Armstrong added. “What Paul is doing — or what his supporters are doing — is really impressive.”

Wired:

In case you were unaware (and how could you be, really?) Ron Paul, the Libertarian fringe candidate favored by the “fringe media” — that is, the trollers on the Internet — made $3 million today in the the hugest, most gargantuan online fundraising event ever.

I love it. Let’s go, Paul!

NRO’s The Corner:

In the last three hours… [David Freddoso]

I went to the bar three hours ago and just returned. In that time, Ron Paul’s campaign raised another $600,000, bringing them to $3.6 million for today. I don’t care what your politics are — that’s a sign that he needs to be taken more seriously.

Nothing yet at Captain’s Quarters, PajamasMedia, Ace of Spades, Michelle Malkin, RedState (obviously), Hugh Hewitt, Powerline, or Connecticut Local Politics. But of course why would there be at the last one, since it’s about fucking Connecticut!

Actually, just out of curiosity, I checked all 10 of the finalists for “Best Conservative Blog”. Not a single one makes any mention of the biggest political story of the day (happening right here in your Republican party guys!).

(in the “Best Political Coverage”, RCP, The Campaign Spot, and us are the only ones to cover it, if you were curious).

(sorry, I can’t help myself. We’re losing to Connecticut Local Politics for chrissakes)

Incidentally, our friend Laura at Red State Eclectic has been doing a pretty good job of rounding up the MSM coverage. Not because she means to, I don’t think, but more because she just can’t help herself.