Myth-Busting The Myth Busters

By Kleinheider Posted on November 29, 2008 at 4:40 pm

From the Huffington Post:

The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) study disclosing that Barack Obama actually raised most of his campaign money from “larger” not “smaller” donors has gained wide, approving, coverage in recent days, from USA Today to the Los Angeles Times and countless web sites, even making Huffington Post at least twice, including as a top link currently. Nearly everyone has headed their account with a headline referring to the “myth” of Obama riding a wave of small donations to victory. That study’s author himself uses it.

But the “myth” is actually in the spinning of the report, including by its author, Michael Malbin, a former speechwriter for Dick Cheney, when he was Pentagon chief, and a resident fellow at The American Enterprise Institute from 1977 to 1986.

As usual in these cases, it’s not that the numbers are wrong, it’s the analysis and how the interpretation is being played by the media. Because, buried in the report, are all the figures and arguments for showing - in a counter-spin - that the CFI’s “myth” is actually a myth.

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