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What I think everyone has missed so far is the potential the web holds for radically changing the path money takes to candidates. The OP was correct to mention Howard Dean's 2004 campaign which was so wildly successful at raising donations in small amounts from individual donors. This scared the established powers on the Left (and Right) to the point that they helped orchestrate Dean's character assassination. It is interesting to see which candidates have thus far adopted Dean's strategy in getting supporters involved via blogs etc. We can assume that Obama or McCain will have a harder time tapping the established Union/Corporation lucre than Clinton or whomever Rove anoints.
The blogs are great and the web has been a good way to disseminate information about a candidate since 1996, but it's the $$$ that counts. Would you rather have a candidate supported by a few insurers or people who use healthcare? The ideal candidate would pair a web-based call for donations with a strict limit on donations to say $300 (Jerry Brown did $100, but that was 1992).
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