Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's supporters are hoping that they can best their Republican counterparts' fund-raising prowess online.Barackfriday_2 Girish Manchaiah, a 35-year-old software engineer and Obama supporter in Springboro, Ohio, has set up an online fund-raising deadline of November 16th to raise $5 million.
Asked whether he was inspired by Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's supporters, who recently raised $4.2 million in 24 hours, Macchaiah said: "Not really -- I think Ron Paul's people are inspired by what we're doing online."
Nevertheless, it's apparent that Ron Paul's recent news-making haul online has touched a competitive nerve within the Democratic grassroots community.
"Backers of the program say if Ron Paul supporters can do it, so can we. Can we really do it?" asked "Diamond," an Obama supporter in Bradenton, Fla. and Dublin, Ireland in a post promoting the November 16 fund-raising drive.
"If a bunch of crazy people can raise $5 million in a day for Ron Paul Matrix rEVOLutions Ayn Rand '08, we should be able to do the same for Obama," wrote "HatchinBrooklyn," at "One Million Strong," a progressive community Weblog dedicated to tracking the conversation and online support for Obama.
The comments echo the admiration (envy of?) for the Paul grassroots' achievement professed recently by many in the liberal blogosphere, including DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas.
Paul's campaign raised $4.2 million November 5 as a result of an online drive organized entirely by his grassroots supporters. (November 5 is Guy Fawkes day in Britain -- the day that the Brits celebrate the foiling of a plot to blow up Parliament and the King by Catholic dissident Guy Fawkes.) The event boosted the candidate's profile on the television networks as well as in print media. (In the meantime, Paul's supporters' aren't resting on their laurels -- grassroots supporter Trevor Lyman has planned another fundraiser for December 16th, this time to coincide with the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.)
Manchaiah said that he and other supporters had originally discussed choosing Thanksgiving as a deadline, but then decided that people would be too busy over the holidays to think about politics. Instead, they choose November 16th -- a day after the CNN televised Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nev.
Obama supporters are spreading the word through social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Eons and Faithbase. Listservs are also playing a role.
For his part, Manchaiah stresses that this isn't about beating his Ron Paul grassroots counterparts.
"This is our tribute to senator Obama," he says. "This is not about winning something, but about how much more we can do for this campaign."
So far this year, Obama has raised a total of $80.2 million, while Paul has raised a total of $8.3 million, both as of September 30th, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
