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When Raising Money Is Not Everything.

At DNC ex-chairman Terry McAuliffe's awkward going-away party last week, the party celebrated its record-breaking fundraising under his tenure, which allowed the Democrats to get out from under large debt as they built their fancy new D.C. headquarters.

But they couldn't celebrate much else.

Money is important in politics, but it isn't everything.

Although Democrats, in recent years, have raised record sums of money, they've also experienced a shockingly rapid decline in power.

The AP (by way of PoliPundit.com blog) notes that Democrats outspent Republicans on television ads in Ohio, $61,000,000 to $39,000,000. Meanwhile, despite the best efforts of the conspiracy theorists, Bush won Ohio by 118,599 votes.

And it wasn't just Ohio that Democrats outspent Republicans.

As WILLisms.com has noted before, Democrats in 2004, who "went overkill on spending at nearly every level," were "swimming in money provided by individuals like George Soros and Peter Lewis."

What can happen when a political party (or any entity) devotes enormous levels of resources to a cause is, past a certain threshold, a declining utility kicks in for each dollar spent. Eventually, spending beyond a certain level can only become counterproductive, producing negative returns per dollar spent.

The run-down on the pros and cons Howard Dean usually goes like this, simplified enormously:

GOOD-
He can raise a lot of money.
He can fire up the base.
He is good at the internet.

BAD-
He is perceived as an extremist.
His scream will never, ever go away.
He can't not fire up the base, thus turning off moderates.
He isn't very good on policy-oriented shows like Meet the Press.

But money trumped everything else; Dean ascended.

As MSNBC reports,

"Democrats count Dean's proven ability to raise big money through small donations and his commitment to spreading power outside Washington as important assets in his new role."

Internet cash addiction is harming the electability of Democrats, yet they still crave more.

It seems that Democrats have learned no lessons from recent elections.

Posted by Will Franklin · 13 February 2005 05:54 PM

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