John Edwards winning strategy by MBNYC

Another great take on how Edwards can handle fund raising after the primary. If Edwards follows a strategy like this, we will have the biggest majorities in the house and senate in the longest time...

One analytical response is this: Catastrophe. A nominee Edwards, penniless and bereft, wouldn't be able to respond to the rightwing hate barrage that is certain to hit our nominee after he - or she - emerges. That would be entirely in line with conventional wisdom.

An alternative view is simply this: that funding gap can and will be filled by the Democratic National Committee, which brings with it several strategic advantages. First of all, the limit for donations to the DNC is $28,500, significantly in excess of the $2,300 limit in contributions to a single candidate in a primary. Of course, as Kos pointed out, contributions to the DNC have historically lagged behind those to the RNC. To this I say, well, duh. Democrats have historically lagged behind republicans, period. However, a situation like this one has not recently arisen; nor will there be competition to the DNC from the fundraising apparatus of our nominee. Past will not be precedent in this instance; certainly not with a sterling candidate like Edwards and a transformative agenda that meets the country's desire for change. All the move to public financing represents is a shift in the location and emphasis of the fundraising apparatus for the later primary, as well as the not inconsiderable benefit of having a candidate freed to do that arcane thing, actually campaigning.

Then, there is the huge ancillary benefit of using this expected flood of DNC funding not just to promote Edwards as our nominee, but to build brand Democrat and other candidates as well. This because the DNC is limited to what the FEC defines, very loosely one might add, as party-building. Long story short, they can run as many ads on behalf of John Edwards as they like - provided such ads also talk about Democrats in general.

That's the crux of it: with Edwards as our nominee, we'll have months of a concerted effort to build up the entire Democratic Party, paid for by the Democratic Party - and that's what's going missing here. Strange that this enormous potential upside to a nominee Edwards has been overlooked, no? If you like the Fifty State strategy, John Edwards is your guy. Neither Obama or Hillary have given any indication whatsoever that they'd be even interested in a similar effort. Rather, they follow the traditional, by-the-books, Beltway-approved candidate-focused approach, while Edwards, creating a virtue out of necessity, will have to lead with a party-centric strategy. This effort will be of enormous value to downticket Democrats.

For more see here.