The final campaign contribution numbers are in. Obama received $774m compared to $331m for McCain. This is strange in presidential politics in this country, the republicans usually rake in enormous war chests from big corporations and far outspend their rivals (whose contributors are more often the poor and middle class workers of America).
Once we add in what the national committees spent on behalf of each of the respective candidates, we arrive at a total of precisely $1 billion for Obama vs $775 million for McCain, a much slimmer margin. It is currently unknown how much other partisan organizations contributed, but I suspect the difference between the 2 candidates would be even closer.
The Obama campaign was the most brilliant and classy one that I have ever seen (or heard about) in this country. 91% of his donations were under $100, coming from individual donors such as myself. To add sauce to the goose, over 4 MILLION people donated to his campaign, shattering the record and truly highlighting the fact that this a people's movement.
Thank you to everyone who helped to make this possible. Thanks to everyone who donate 5, 10, or 20 dollars during extremely tough financial times in this Bush-created depression. Thanks to all who could not afford to donate, but volunteered instead. Thanks to those who no longer remained silent, talked to their friends, coworkers, neighbors, and relatives to spread the message of hope. Thanks to anyone who had the courage to stand up, fight for whats right, and did their part in taking our country back from the parasites who stole it from us 8 years ago. Finally, thanks to Barack Obama, the man with a vision who had the audacity of hope that inspired millions.
As you remember, this was my prediction cast 2 weeks prior to the election. I was wrong about North Dakota and Missouri, although I'm willing to bet a recount would have turned MO blue. A big sea of red continues to occupy the middle of our country.
If we display each state with its population as a key to its size, the picture looks a little different, and that big sea of red in the middle shrinks down to size nicely.
Obama made some serious inroads into traditionally red areas. Notice the Great Lakes region, eastern seaboard, Rocky Mountains, and other rural pockets.
