the anatomy of a money bomb: those that worked (Paul) vs. those that didn't (others)

Excerpts from C.J. Maloney's piece on LewRockwell.com (hat tip: Martina Webster)-- with a number of interesting observations, including...

Paul's decision to go transparent with his contribution totals...

At the beginning of the fourth quarter Ron Paul (unlike every other candidate) decided to openly show the world how much he has raised in actual cash, and update the total every minute or so on his web site. That, ladies and gentlemen, takes absolute nerves of steel.
And what made his decision even more out there is that it was decided upon before the Ron Paul people had ever heard of Trevor Lyman and James Sugra (the brains behind the money bombs)...

And then details on Paul's fund-raising...

How To Detonate A Money Bomb: "No one person made this possible." ~ Jon Bydlak, fundraising director, Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2008

During the last half of September, two events were staged – and unlike the soon-to-come money bombs they were actually planned by the campaign. Fill the Quill came first, and a request for $500,000 to fill an on-line thermometer graphic then followed on the last week.
What happened? These test runs allowed the Ron Paul people to "learn the power of empowering people." For Fill the Quill he asked 1,787 (get it?) of his supporters to sign up to donate, yet the campaign's focus was more on the number of donors rather than the cash generated. Ron Paul's people, basically, were putting their toe in the water to gauge the depth of the market, before diving in.

The following week, Ron Paul’s people decided to set a fund-raising goal for the last week of the third quarter – $500,000. The MeetUp group which raised the most funds would get a personal visit from Dr. Paul. They raised $1,000,000, ending the quarter at $5,000,000, shocking the pundits’ laughter and Ron Paul’s skepticism right out of them.

Someone posted on blogforfredthompson.com "I anticipate 8–9 million since that other guy (Ron Paul) is half what Fred is in the polling. Should easily get double. Fred is polling high. Lots of supporters to draw from." Apparently not. Bottom line, you need the support of the people; there just aren’t enough actual people in the special interest groups and corporations to pull this off.

Fred Thompson’s failed money bomb as "amateurish" – but this is clearly not the reason for its failure. A successful money bomb is in and of itself an amateur event, an event unplanned from the center.

Trevor Lyman and James Sugra, the two gentlemen who lit the fuses for Ron Paul’s money bomb success, are a California dude and a Miami Beach resident, respectively. They are both very young, and they are both as amateur as amateur can get.

And your supporters must not only be numerous, but excited enough by your message to act on it, to donate their time and money willingly.

The money bomb's of other major candidates...

Barack Obama’s supporters launched an attempt to raise money to crush the Ron Paul campaign’s mother lode. After all, with front-runner status and double-digits in the polls, surely Mr. Obama would see an inflow of more than $4,700 from 73 people on his November the 16th money bomb.

No he wouldn’t, and stop calling me Shirley.

...one would guess that [Huckabee] would bring in more than $223,589. I freely admit that is not a bad number at all if you keep your brain closed real tight and block out $4,300,000 and $6,000,000.

On December 27th, Mike Huckabee’s legions of supporters, whose backing has thrown him into number one in the polls, held another money bomb for him and raised…$89,965.

Mitt Romney and his perfectly perfected otherworldly coif chose December 7th for his money bomb, to mark that black day when Japan, without a declaration of war, launched a pre-emptive attack on our nation.

Asking his poll-bots to stop giving him double-digit assurance and instead send money for a change, I can find nothing on his website as to its success. Interestingly, his websites "news" section on December 8th carried nary a mention of his money bomb.

Silence is always golden, and sometimes telling, too.

On November 21st Fred Thompson – assured by the polls that his supporters were double to Ron Paul’s in number – asked them to participant in a joint mass fundraising called, strangely, "Fred’s Giving Day." (Fred’s not giving, you are.) No mention of any historic reference date, nor of the amount of cash raised.

The wrap-up...

What makes Ron Paul’s money raising juggernaut so fun to watch is that he’s raising this money from individuals, not special interest groups or corporations looking for handouts of Other Peoples’ Money, but from individuals who want nothing more than to stop the looting.
Ron Paul strolled into our political gladiator’s pit to the howls and laughter of the luxury boxes. But he raised his eyes and voice to the upper boxes, raised them to all the forgotten ones sitting in the cheap seats. Judging by the $19 million of fourth quarter money they have showered upon him as of the time of this writing, the cheap seats weren’t laughing. Not at all.