We noticed overnight that Sen. Stabenow (D-MI) is now raising money (for the DSCC) from her exchange/smackdown with Sen. Kyl over maternity care. And it occurred to me that while we could certainly find many of examples of this over the past few years by one definition or another, the pattern of piggybacking a fundraising campaign on top of a viral video or meme has suddenly come of age. The two boffo fundraising efforts tied to Rep. Joe Wilson’s ‘you lie!’ outburst were perhaps the breakthrough examples.
Again, I know it’s not entirely new. But it does seem to me that the viral news nugget pathways have sufficiently matured and the rapid fire one-off fundraising technology has been perfected enough that the whole thing has somehow come into its own.
Am I on to something here or all wet?
