Kos, You Just Don’t Get It
Sometime I have a tough time deciding whether I feel worse for Kos or his readers. Sometimes I think Kos is clueless so I feel bad for him. But it seems so clear that he’s clueless that I have trouble feeling bad for people who choose to read his ramblings.
On other occasions, I figure Kos isn’t as dumb as he seems – his stuff is so outlandish it’s clearly partisan hackery run amok, so I feel bad for his readers because they are obviously too dumb to know they’re being manipulated.
Then there come days like today – days when I don’t know which way to go.
By all accounts, the DNC is a disaster. They have managed to hold on in a couple of races, but for the most part, Howard Dean is still busy pursuing a 50-state strategy – a plan that Trippi told him was doomed to fail.
But Maple Powered Howard isn’t hearing it. So he’s racking up the bills and charging forward.
The problem is sycophantic weasels like Kos keep spouting the mantra that he is succeeding and the party is doing great. The latest example of shilling for the DNC? This little embarrassment…
The Democratic National Committee raised more than $51M in 2005, a record for an off-year and twenty percent higher than the comparable period in 2003.
And remember that 2003 wasn’t a “comparable period”. 2001 would be the “comparable period”. Dean’s fundraising, the year after a presidential election (when money traditionally dries up) outpaced the DNC’s fundraising the year before a presidential election (when money opens up). And Dean’s feat is all that much more remarkable considering that he did it all with small dollar donations. McAuliffe could solict [sic] the million dollar donations in 2003 subsequently banned by McCain/Feingold’s CFR.
There are only two problems with Kos’ theory. First, Having a banner year for fundraising is only good if you are anywhere close to the other guy. In this case, they aren’t. Second, McAuliffe was not allowed to solicit million dollar checks in 2003.
Let’s look at the numbers as they should be examined.
Over the same period, the RNC raised more than $95,000,000 and as of December 20, had more than $70,000,000 Cash on Hand (COH). So the RNC raised almost twice as much, and still has a significant chunk available for spending.
What do the Democrats have on hand? $7,000,000!
That’s right! They have 1/10th the amount of money the RNC has, despite raising 1/2 as much money. That’s good financial planning, Howard. Good thing you became a doctor and not an accountant.
In 2005, the DNC raised $53,000,000 and spent $52,000,000 – leaving them $1,000,000 ahead of where they were at the beginning of the year. That’s a pretty sad showing – especially when compared to the other guy.
What about Kos’ claims that Dean is way ahead of McAuliffe despite Terry’s ability to raise more?
Well, McAuliffe was NOT able to solicit million dollar checks. McCain-Feingold became effective on November 6, 2002. If McAuliffe was soliciting million dollar checks at that time, and Kos has evidence of that, perhaps the FEC should speak to him. Court challeneges were in the works, but people were playing by the new rules in case the case law came down against them and they had to pay it back with fines and interest.
Ignoring that, however, the fact is at the end of 2003, the Democrats were significantly better off than at the beginning. While McAuliffe inherited a COH of 1.5 million, at the end of 2003, he had COH of nearly 9 million. That’s an increase (for the math challeneged Kos) of 7.5 million. What was Howard’s net gain in COH again? 1 million?
But what did the $52 million buy? Surely that would justify the minimal increase in the DNC war chest.
Fortunately, Kos has the answer. He links to a blog post that “runs through all the accomplishments Dean’s DNC had in 2005”. The source? An official DNC press release
The highlight of the 5 item accomplishment list seems to be the fact that they spent $7 million to hold two governorships that they already had. That, and apparently, they hired staff in 43 states and gave them some sort of training. Well, that is impressive! Those people must be making upwards of $500,000 dollars per person per year to burn through $52 million. Maybe I should become a Democrat and jump on the Howard Dean jobs program. His 50 state strategy seems to be nothing more than an effort to raise the per capita income in every state.
Seriously, though. I’ve read enough of Kos’ bullshit over the last few years to realize that he knows he’s spouting a bunch of crap designed to boost the morale of their troops. The sad thing is he is so dishonest about it. At least when he pimped himself for Dean in the primary he got paid. Are you still getting a check now, Kos?
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