Update [2005-6-12 15:30:31 by Armando]: From the diaries by Armando. Dave's right. If the Media gets it right, we should say so. From what I have read, Fineman did better than the others on the issue.
Since we're all so quick to post when someone bashes Howard Dean or writes something inaccurate about DNC fundraising, it's only fair to mention this Howard Fineman article in the new Newsweek.
As a fund-raiser--the first duty of a party chairman and Dean's claim to fame in '04--he isn't quite the disaster some critics suggest. Early in the last "cycle," in 2001, the Republican National Committee outraised the DNC by a 3-1 margin. So far this year, that ratio has been cut to 2-1. More important is the way it was raised. In the past the party relied on "soft money" from millionaires. But such donations are now illegal. Officials esti-mate that $12 million of the $14 million the Dean regime has collected so far this year has come from those who gave less than $250. "For people who really look hard at the numbers, he's wowing people," says Elaine Kamarck, a respected DNC member.
Dean has a knack for organization, at least in its insurgent form. It won him the DNC chairmanship--and got him within screaming distance of the nomination. This time his theory is to strengthen weak state organizations with national help. He's visited 22 states since taking over this year; his "assessment teams" have investigated many of those same states. Drawing money from the Internet (as opposed to East and West Coast fat cats) and pumping cash into the grass roots (as opposed to waves of TV advertising) "represents a big paradigm shift in the way the Democratic Party does politics," says Kamarck.
Yes, you're seeing that right. Fineman has a non-anonymous source.
Of course this stuff comes from an article called "SCREAM 2: THE SEQUEL" and is sandwiched in some stuff about how Dean promised, at his DC meetings, to stay out of the news by toning down his remarks. But that's the media paradigm on Dean - for the immediate future, he is the guy who says crazy things and made that Iowa scream. It's kind of like how whenever the media covers Dick Cheney, they mention that he told a senator to "go fuck himself" while in the senate chamber.
They do mention that every time they cover Cheney, right?