At the end of a post about Caribou Barbie's fundraising, the usually reliable Nate Silver made a point about small donors to campaigns who, he said, "have a way of turning into activists and, ultimately, voters." That is almost exactly wrong, I think. Donors (or anyone else) do not turn into activists and/or voters. It takes a highly organized effort to channel enthusiasm and to organize it into productive campaigning. That's what the Obama campaign understood -- that it takes a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Sure you need enthusiasm but unorganized enthusiasm tends to look a lot like chaos. It's not some magical process that will happen just because everyone in Wingnuttia is clicking their heels together and repeating the magic words.