February 7, 2008
The Kennedy Lift
Yesterday we focused on the negative: neither Ted Kennedy nor John Kerry nor Deval Patrick was able to help Barack Obama to a win in the Massachusetts primary. However, Atlantic blogger Matthew Yglesias slowed the rush to proclaim Kennedy's irrelevance with a helpful chart:
It's obvious there (and it was obvious here and here) that Obama had a lot of momentum heading into the voting--though it's impossible to say exactly how much of that was related to the high-level endorsements. As Yglesias wrote, "If he'd had another two weeks to campaign, maybe he would have closed the gap." That's seems right, and should be something of a moral victory for Obama's Bay State backers.
But one of the key facts about Tuesday's primary was that it was held on Tuesday. Regardless of how quickly he was rising, it wasn't enough.
Also, it's ancient history in the realm of internet time, but remember when the Atlantic was a Boston magazine? Those were the days.
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Great post, J
Is there a chart for Obama's fundraising, which is off the charts since Tuesday?
I haven't seen anything. opensecrets.org has great fundraising charts, but not until they get the official numbers from the campaigns (and that takes about three weeks after the month is over.) Obama raised over 30 million in January, so he was already way up in that regard.
I wonder what effect Ted had on Obama outside of Ma.? I am sure he was out helping elsewhere no?
I was sorta kidding about the chart. But, Obama has raised $7+ million since Tuesday. My point was with Obama crushing Hillary in fundraising, it's a clear sign of who really has the advantage. Teddy's endorsement is great but the money matters more, imo.