Regardless of what you think about Obama, a vast majority of the party still loves him...

[Laelth]

71. You raise a good point.

The big question is this: who inherits the Obama fundraising machine?

Noam Scheiber, in his recent New Republic essay, shows that there are now two, competitive fundraising machines in the Democratic Party. One is controlled by the Clintons. The other was shut out by the Clintons, formed around the candidacy of John Kerry, and was inherited by Obama. These days, the Obama machine is dominant, but the Clinton machine is still very strong.

Quite obviously, if Hillary runs, she has her own fundraising machine as a base from which to work. To whom the Obama machine throws its support is the real question.

It's not that I need to worry about whether Elizabeth Warren can get votes. She has no problem doing that. She's already the third-best fundraiser in the Democratic Party (behind Obama and Hillary Clinton), but somebody is going to inherit Obama's fundraising apparatus. Elizabeth Warren could greatly benefit from that (and, I would argue, so would the American people).

-Laelth