Small Donors Didn't Drive His Campaign: Study

The little guy didn't fill Barack Obama's campaign coffers after all, a new non-partisan study says. True, almost 50% of his donations were $200 or less, but many of those donors gave again. Only about a quarter of them stopped at two C-notes, a figure in the same range as donations to John McCain. About 80% of Obama's money came from people who gave more than $1,000, the New York Times reports.

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said the executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, which conducted the study. “The reality of Obama’s fund-raising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.” (More Barack Obama stories.)