Money in Politics and devotion to a cause (Bernie)

Today, after the end-of-the-third-quarter campaign fundraising dashes for Bernie, Hillary, and the rest of them, the campaigns revealed how much money they took in during the first full quarter of fundraising.  Bernie raised $26m ($2m on the last day!), an increase from the $15m he raised up through June 30.  Hillary Clinton's campaign raised $28m, a drop from the $47m she raised previously.

It's true that Hillary did outraise Bernie, but the main story-line of this campaign news "event" is that Bernie's on the rise and Hillary's having problems.  She held 58 fundraising events in the period, while Bernie only held 7, and Bernie has had 650,000 individual contributors and has average donations of about $25, while for Hillary . . . well, her campaign won't say, but given how many of her big-dollar donors have been donating the maximum $2,700, it's probably less than half as many as Bernie's campaign has--maybe as few as 1/20th.

But beyond just the comparisons of how much money, and expectations, there's something else going on here, the comparison of how much money it takes each campaign to get campaigning done.  If Hillary had to take time out for a fundraising event two out of every three days in the quarter (many exclusively open only to those who could fork over hefty donations), then she's not campaigning as much as Bernie is, even while she's got more money.  And while Hillary has more campaign staffers hired, both as price consultants as well as "ground troops" in important states, Bernie might actually have more labor going into his campaign if you count not only hired help, but volunteers organizing events.

Here in Hamilton, we passed the hat around our group of about 30 people to spring for 2,500 4"x 6" campaign hand-out cards that were spread all around Whitesboro, NY, and other places in the course of canvassing.  None of this came out of the Sanders campaign coffers.  Does Hillary have such free labor on offer, or operations like "Coders for Bernie"?

I doubt it: Hillary's campaign is bought-and-paid for, because people just don't like Hillary enough to devote anything more meaningful than dollars to her campaign.  Hillary lacks charisma not just in the classic sense, but in the sociological sense: she doesn't have Charismatic Authority (Thanks, Max Weber!).  Her husband did, and millions of people wanted to do what he said because it became clear to them that it was the right thing to do, especially when he said it.  Bernie has the same capacity, which is why my wife & I quit our jobs to move to Virginia to volunteer for Bernie, and so many other people are devoting time & effort, not in return for paychecks & résumé lines, to the political revolution that Bernie is calling us to.