A whisper campaign is rocketing around Washington, and the target is Barack Obama. He has proudly talked about the overwhelming number of small donors who have contributed to his campaign, with supporters citing them as evidence of a groundswell that could sweep Obama into the Democratic nomination. But now critics say he is padding his numbers.
Obama is counting every person who buys a campaign button, t-shirt or bumper sticker as a donor, and that has pushed up his numbers. It's only made a small difference, his campaign folks say; people who bought merchandise account for only about one percent of his donors.
What's more, the candidate himself says, correctly, that under law he must list these people as donors, because the campaign itself is selling the merchandise. When campaigns farm their merchandising out to vendors, like many of them do, only then do the rules change ... and the buyers are no longer donors.
That's how campaign analysts read the law. But the whispers go on. What do you think: Is this about a real attempt to massage the numbers or just sour grapes?
-- By Tom Foreman, CNN Correspondent
