In case you missed it, Barack Obama's historic grassroots fundraising operation passed a huge milestone last week: two million donors. It's people like us, the ones giving $10 and $20 at a time, who allow him to run a truly publicly financed campaign while enjoying even greater monetary advantages than his opponent, a candidate funded by special interests and lobbyists.
Ed Prouty of New Hampshire was the two millionth person to donate to the campaign. He's a contractor who specializes in HVAC, and since I used to work for a plumbing and HVAC supplier in the area, I feel like it could've been me. It could've been any of us.
His reward? A phone call from Sen. Obama himself, thanking him for the contribution.
Here's the audio from the phone call:
Obama sounds like he's sitting in the bottom of a barrel... I see now a diary was posted recently, saying that he's sick. That explains that. Nevertheless, how freaking cool is this?
Not a great deal of substance here, but I wanted to make sure you guys saw this video and heard the phone call. You get the sense that Obama really appreciates people digging into their wallets for whatever they can afford to contribute. But as he so often says, we're not doing this for him. We're doing it for us. As a future teacher, I need Barack Obama to win this election so that my president will once again care about the children sitting in front of me. I need their parents and my government as partners. Why do you need him to win?
Think about that, and for the love of all that's good, please contribute whatever you can. I pledged $50 to Obama on Saturday night, based solely on McCain's answer on education. That's my issue, and I think it's worth the investment.
Thank you to Ed Prouty and to the millions of people (it feels so good to type that) who are taking their country back.