The network was one of the ways Obama got the money. If it weren't for Obama's ability to encourage a large number of people to donate money to him over and ov

The network was one of the ways Obama got the money. If it weren't for Obama's ability to encourage a large number of people to donate money to him over and over again, Clinton would have crushed him in the primaries. (As the article makes clear, the money isn't the only reason Obama skillfully used the Web, but all that community-building stuff had the happy side effect of providing additional fundraising channels.)