Obama: $1 Million in a Minute

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

As the Democratic Presidential hopefuls approach Pennsylvania's Apr. 22 vote, Senator Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign, trailing in statewide polls, is set to get a shot in the arm. Later this week, a small band of independent Obama supporters plans to launch another new fund-raising Web site, AnObamaMinute.com, with the goal of raising $1 million dollars in one minute.

Last week the Obama camp announced it had raised $40 million in March alone, nearly twice the amount raised by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) during the same period. In all, he has raised some $234 million. Through February, Clinton's campaign had raised $156 million.

AnObamaMinute.com calls for pledgers (who can pre-register) to register a donation within 60 seconds, at 1pm on Apr. 21. Could the site be interpreted as just another stunt in an environment where $1 million isn't what it used to be? "There is certainly an element of theater," admits one member of Obama's national finance committee who's familiar with the project (the campaign is participating to make sure all contributions meet federal giving requirements). But, it is also another ambitious fund-raising effort in a political season marked by campaigns that have aggressively pushed the boundaries of raising money, both off and online.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2008/id2008047_357799.htm

[Cha]

1. Well, I like this PR , small

donor, Fundraising stunt!

[AZBlue]

2. My birthday! How perfect is that?!

:D

[ClayZ]

3. What year were you born?

Mine is April 22 Earth Day. The day that we will be sure Obama is the Candidate!

[Blue State Bandit]

5. Happy Birthday (in advance)!

I'm sure that I will be raising a pint of Yuengling Lager in celebration on the 22nd. Now I'll have more than one...

reason, beer, whatever! :toast:

[AZBlue]

7. I have some "Obama's our nominee" champagne chilling already!

:D

[ClayZ]

15. I'm thinking Margaritas!

Thanks and Cheers!

[AZBlue]

6. That's a very nice day for a birthday!!

I was born in '66. Maybe I'll donate $42 to Obama. :)

[ClayZ]

14. I will give 58, then!

Wooo Hooo!

[PoliticalAmazon]

4. Shouldn't be a problem. Every time Hillary does another Rove, I make another...

...donation to Obama. I think most Obama supporters probably do, out of shear fear of what life would be like under Der Hillary.

[FrenchieCat]

8. I'm up for it!

This will be fun!

[Zachstar]

9. This sounds like fun!

[DUyellow]

10. I'm down for it.

[Bensthename]

11. If it happens it will be big news just before PA.

[SunsetDreams]

12. count me in :)

[boppers]

13. Either a dumb idea, or a very expensive one?

That's 16,666 (etc.) one-dollar transactions per second. Assuming that the actual monetary transactions were offloaded to a nightly batch job, and that each donor gave 10 dollars, it's still a minimum of capturing 1,666 new transactions... per second. Peaks and valleys would mean 1-10k per second.

Whoever is behind this knows their hardware and software scaling very well, (and has lots of resources available) or is in for a rude awakening. It's certainly doable, with a cluster of, oh, 20 transaction recording machines, some load balancing hardware/software, with post processing machines updating a database, but buying/building/racking/tuning that many machines in short order is something of a challenge for small and scrappy startups.

[krkaufman]

17. A very detailed expression of what I was thinking

I see "server crash" as the most likely event.

Besides, the day-long or an hour-long window would seem to make more sense, to allow those with less schedule flexibility to participate. Also, such pre-planned fund-raising efforts may cause people to postpone donations they'd otherwise make. Ron Pauls' one-day effort did him a lot of good in terms of PR, but I'm not sure there's been any real study of overall benefits for a frontrunner candidate.

Just seems kinda pointless (especially since the odds of success are so low).

[FrenchieCat]

18. I believe you can pledge......meaning you can do it ahead of time.....

[azmouse]

16. I like the idea.

[McCamy Taylor]

19. Box office? Am I the only one who finds all this drooling over $$$ sort of weird for Dems?

Is this our new measure of success? The Edwards would go build homes in NOLA.