It wasn't too long ago that I complained when it seemed as though the Dean campaign was continuosly bringing out their fundraising bat. While I've been against Dean for quite some time, my reasoning for the bat was more of dissapointment.
Howard Dean really did lead a revolution in Internet politics, and the bat early on was a rare sight but a sign of amazing momentum and power from ordinary people donating less than $100.
Then, every other campaign brought out their own style of 'the bat', and the fundraising online went from being an amazing message to typical politicians pinching for every penny they could get. Dean was doing this from the start as well, but I think most of us would agree that the internet funraising was different. There were reasons the bat was there, it was the end of the quarter or they were responding to an attack ad. The power Dean supporters showed was very impressive. While I didn't support Dean, it was fun to see the way the Internet had transformed politics.
Thats why I was so dissapointed when I saw campaigns pull out bats for things like the candidates birthday. There was no message there, just fundraising. I knew it would happen, but I had hoped the purity of the internet grassroots would stick around a little longer...
Well, Howard Dean has a comeback bat up right now, as most of you already know. For the first time in a while I'm interested in the fundraising again. See, this bat DOES have a meaning. That bat is the only thing that keeps Howard Dean alive in this campaign, and his supporters have been doing there very best to keep him alive. The bat also symbolizes something else though. It symbolizes the weakness of the campaign. In the past similar bats have held deadlines to meet a goal, this bat did not. When they met their 1 million dollar goal, they asked their supporters to keep it going. No goal in sight and no deadline.
Interestingly enough, the same bat that showed Deans power and strength, is now the bat that shows his weakness. The Internet has once again shown us something new.