Since this summer I've been following the growth of Americans for Dean by jotting the daily numbers on Post-It notes next to my monitor. Since November there really hasn't been much change in the daily rate of newbies, maybe 800-1100 per day, with double or triple that the day after a big endorsement.
Anyway, things have really picked up in the past few days (differences given in parentheses)
Jan. 9 563,227
Jan. 10 low 564K (1K)
Jan. 11 low 566K (2K)
Jan. 12 568,644 (2.5K)
Jan. 13 571,466 (2.8K)
Jan. 14 575,356 (3.9K)
It's plausible to think that as the primaries and caucuses near, people who are concerned citizens but not political junkies would finally start paying real attention to the race, and that some of them would join DFA. Yet recent state and national polls would seem to indicate that more people are abandoning Dean than joining him. So what's going on?