Flash Mob Politics

I think one of the reasons the Democrats are losing political battles (they have already lost the zeitgeist) is that the Internet and instant money transfers have brought us into an age of flash Mob politics. Political parties no longer get to decide on a monolithic message. The people can bypass the parties and directly support candidates - instantly.

Take my support for a Rocket Scientist for Congress who is going up against a Democrat who got 62% of the vote his last time out. And the Rocket Scientist, Ruth McClung, has a chance of winning. Send her a few bucks and improve her chances of winning.

Or take the Christine O'Donnell race in Delaware. She has a 24 hour money bomb request out to raise one million dollars. Sadly - she fell short. She only raised about $880,000 in 24 hours.

RS McCain - you know the other one - has called forth cash for a lot of candidates. Right now he is assisting Charles Lollar, a Marine who is going after Steny Hoyer. And if you want to help - the RS McCain link will get you there.

And this is going on all over the Internet. The Democrats have organized to fight an army and what they are actually facing is an insurgency. And for the Democrats one problem is the tooth to tail ratio. For an insurgency you don't need much tail. What you do need is popular support. And that does not have to be 50% - probably as little as 30% will work - if the insurgents focus on picking off a few of the opposition. Make an example of them. Pour encourager les autres.

Now here is where it gets even more interesting. As the insurgents start picking off the various Democrats and succeed the Democrats switched to a fire wall strategy. But the firewall is not holding. Every time the firewall is breached the effort put into those candidates just behind the wall is wasted. Hot Air has a bit on the wasted effort.

The DCCC did not spend money on behalf of Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio), Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.), Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), the filings show. Republicans believe those seven seats are all but guaranteed to fall their way.

Even in some races where Democrats did spend money, their advertising indicates little more than a token effort at salvaging seats that are also likely to fall to the GOP. The DCCC is spending just $30,000 for Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), who polls show trailing ex-Rep.Steve Chabot (R) by wide margins. That follows reports that the DCCC was pulling out of Driehaus’ district.

Things are still fluid and moving the Republican's way. I have seen some pretty wild predictions. One hundred seats. One hundred and seventeen seats (that is pretty finely calibrated). I dunno. I'm sticking with 65 seats in the bag. I sure wouldn't mind being surprised if that number was low.

Cross Posted at Classical Values