NahnCee,

Obama’s funding has always struck me as puzzling. I admit it’s only a gut instinct, but consider the following (from OpenSecrets.org):

Obama’s campaign has reported 221,049 contributors who have given more than $200.
Obama’s campaign has reported that 51% of its donations have come from donors who have given less than $200.

If you do the math, this means that about 230,000 people have given less than $200.

Let’s assume that each of these people has given $199.99. This adds up to about $46 million.

But his campaign has also reported raising $220M from donations less than $200. Where did the rest of the money come from? This is no small amount of difference – $174M, the absence of which would wipe out the money difference between the candidates.

Alternatively, let’s say the number of contributors calculated above is wrong, but the $220M is correct. If one assumes a reasonable distribution of those <$200 donations, this means Obama has received more than 2 million individual gifts. Even in the age of the internet, this sounds high. Again according to OpenSecrets.org, Bush and Kerry each had about 77,000 donors who gave less than $200 in the 2004 election. I know Obama has reached out to a lot of new people, but 2,600% more? Doesn’t sound right.

If I believed in conspiracy theories, I could construct a pretty juicy one involving Soros, Iranian oil money, Swiss banks, and Pakistani call centers.

Curious.

L3