MoveOn Worked Hard to Help Obama Win

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 9:02 AM on November 6, 2008.

It was only a short time ago that every Democrat in the Senate was trashing MoveOn, refusing to stand up for them as the right tore them apart.  Many of us argued that it was really stupid and irresponsible to help dismantle a critically important part of progressive infrastructure (for which I personally earned a hit-piece from Bill-O, in which he called me a "fascist").

Well, in the 2008 election it looks like MoveOn delivered:

After endorsing President-elect Obama in February, MoveOn.org Political Actions 4.5 million members contributed more than $88 million towards Barack Obamas presidential campaign, the organization announced today. And more than 1 million MoveOn members worked in a trail-blazing field effort in coordination with the Obama campaign.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, MoveOn and its members:

• Contributed more than $58 million directly to Obama's campaign

Raised and spent more than $30 million in independent election efforts

Delivered up to 600,000 battleground state volunteers. 400,000 more volunteers participated from non-battleground states

Added 1 million young members from June to September 2008, and mobilized them online and offline

Registered more than 500,000 new young Obama supporters in battleground states

With 4.5 million members, MoveOn is now bigger than the NRA.  Maybe our leaders should think about that for a while.

Tagged as: obama, moveon

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.