About a month ago, I did a short tally on how the presidential candidates were doing in signing activists up for their campaign’s MeetUp gatherings. I thought it’d be interesting to return to the topic to see how the candidates were doing.
Just to be clear, as I said last month, there is no such thing as an official MeetUp primary, it’s just a phrase I’m using to talk about the candidates’ success in generating excitement from grassroots activists online. To be sure, a campaign can do perfectly well with low MeetUp numbers, but the totals are nevertheless indicative of genuine enthusiasm among ‘net-based activists.
Naturally, Howard Dean is still the reigning champ in MeetUp land. His supporters helped give him a huge head-start in the MeetUp primary, organizing Dean supporters through MeetUps 11 months ago. As of this morning, over 143,000 people had signed up for Dean.
Wesley Clark, meanwhile, has a strong second-place showing here. Though his numbers pale in comparison to Dean’s, Clark MeetUps saw their numbers top 45,000 yesterday. That number has nearly doubled over the last five weeks. Of course, while Clark still trails Dean by quite a bit, Clark’s MeetUp numbers are more than the totals for Kerry, Kucinich, Edwards, Braun, Gephardt, Lieberman, and Sharpton combined. Pretty good for a guy who’s only been in the race for two months.
After Dean and Clark, the totals (rounded to the nearest hundred) are as follows:
Kucinich — 18,200
Kerry — 16,800
Edwards — 1,900
Braun — 800
Gephardt — 500
Lieberman — 300
Sharpton — 100
This has to be a little embarrassing for Gephardt and Lieberman. I’ve noticed that the two have effectively given up on encouraging supporters to sign up for their MeetUps, which considering their numbers, was probably a good idea. (Bob Graham has over 700 people signed up for his MeetUps and he’s not even in the race anymore)
Who am I forgetting? Oh right, the guy who’s actually in the White House right now. As of this morning, George W. Bush has signed up a whopping 1,800 people for Bush 2004 MeetUps — about one-eightieth of Dean’s numbers. Bush’s total is not only less than John Edwards’ campaign (1,900), it’s even less than the Draft Al Gore in 2004 folks have (1,900).
In fact, TBogg noted yesterday that Bush’s 1,800 supporters are scheduled to have their next MeetUp on December 9 in over 600 cities, which works out to be about three people per location.
TBogg thinks it’d be fun to go to a Bush MeetUp just to see who showed. “Find out where they’re meeting in your city and go join the fun,” he said. “Just look for the lonely white guy with the annotated copy of The Art of War…”
If you’re so inclined, swing by MeetUp.com and sign up for the candidate of your choice.