Day 47: counting the record cash
Updated on 05 December 2008
Thursday 4 December 2008: $750mn donations and opening up healthcare policy.
Obama - or rather a report from the Federal Election Commission - shows us the money.
His record fundraising drive brought in nearly $750mn in donations - more than that of all the 2004 election race candidates combined.
Healthcare - a longtime concern of soon-to-be secretary of state, Hillary Clinton - comes under the spotlight for Team Obama. And this being the interactive Team Obama, the spotlight gets shared over the wider web.
A video of a health policy team meeting, chaired by team leader Tom Daschle, pops up on the transition site blog.
The idea is to show us how the team makes decisions. Cue lots of shots of a latte-strewn meeting table, intercut with clips of health wonks telling the camera calmly how keen they are to listen to people's feedback on healthcare reform.
Inside the transition: healthcare (Source: www.change.gov)
And to this end, a couple of the public's healthcare stories are posted on the team's blog.
A woman is upset with a company that decided to stop sending her mother's cancer medication with no warning after six months, on the basis that it would no longer be needed as patients don't normally live that long.
Another correspondent - a medical student - wonders whether she can afford to pursue a healthcare career.
The team wants to hear from more people like this - so go on, share. Well, if you live in America, that is.
Over on this side of the Atlantic, a rumour surfaces - via the New Statesman - that, according to "diplomatic sources" the president-elect dismissed Conservative leader David Cameron as "lightweight" this summer.
Rather undiplomatic, if true - though whether it is true, and why, if so, it took nearly six months to surface, has yet to be seen.
