Or............... it's because the donations are coming partly in the form of merchandise sales on Obama's web site.

I've made a series of donations to Obama - and most of the time I've also added merchandise like pins, hand signs, and magnetic car stickers use for myself and/or give away to friends, family, etc. So most of my (eight?) separate donations are not rounded to the dollar.

Had they bothered to look around on Obama's website or ask people who contributed to his campaign, they would have figured this out. They either didn't bother or more likely are deliberately manufacturing a scandal because they have no principles and will do or say anything to cast Obama as illegitimate/unamerican, etc. What a bunch of lazy, paranoid psychopaths.

please someone explain this to me: why are there so many nincompoops on the right?

please someone explain this to me: why are there so many nincompoops on the right

There may not be a short and easy answer, but this election year more than perhaps any other in generations will give us a very accurate count of the total number and geographical concentration of America's morons*.

* or at least the people who you can fool all of the time.

Oh yeah? Well I heard Obama wasn't in Hawaii to see his grandmother at all. He is attending a secret meeting of bad people trying to steal America.

One other thing to consider would be US citizens living abroad. Duh!

"please someone explain this to me: why are there so many nincompoops on the right"

Private or Home School Education?

I remember during the 2004 primaries that Dean supporters were encouraged to tack on an extra $.44 (for the 44th president) to their donations.

The reasoning by Newsmax appears to be:
1.) non-integer donations are being received for the Obama campaign.
2.) foreign donations could potentially result in non-integer sums.
3.) Therefore, Obama is being funded by foreigners.

I'm sure I'm not the only one reminded of that delightful scene from Holy Grail:
1.) If she's a witch she will float.
2.) Ducks float.
3.) If she's lighter than a duck, than she's a witch.

Of course, in MPHG the woman is found to be lighter than the duck, but that shouldn't detract from my point.

The reasoning by Newsmax appears to be:

Actually, I think the "reasoning" is probably even simpler:
1. find *any* excuse, real or imagined, to cast Obama and his supporters as foreign and/or illegitimate. FULL STOP.

On the upside, I look forward to Newsmax reporting that they've discovered the earth is banana shaped.

I thought it was illegal to donate to a presidential campaign if you weren't an American, or I might have done it. If that's not the case, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was some foreign money on Obama, based simply on the number of people outside America who think Obama's by far the best choice - and have thought so since the race began.

Newsmax is not confused, it is LYING. The instant I read this post, I googled the National Legal and Policy Center, and it was immediately obvious that, as I suspected, it is a wingnut astroturf front group. This is a FUD campaign, the truth is irrelevant to these fuckers.

I know this isn't a proper thing to say, but are these people fricking retarded? I'm just amazed at the amount of effort these fools must have put into this "analysis" of theirs. I'm sure they imagined they were being fiendishly clever for having hatched this brilliant forensics technique. And I betcha their team of numberologists were gnashing their teeth that they got beat before breaking the code proving that "Barack Hussein Obama" equals 666.

Somehow, I don't remember this "add $.15" thing at all, but to suggest that all of these odd amounts must be from non-Americans is simply the dumbest thing I've read all day, and I've been skimming RedState all day.

Augustus has the right answer, in comment #1.

"please someone explain this to me: why are there so many nincompoops on the right"

Because reality has a well-known liberal bias. Thus, to be a wingnut, you must liberate yourself from reality.

Well, Dr Biobrain, they are actually not retarded: They just think many of the undecided voters are. And sadly, they may be correct.

This is a FUD campaign...

varmintito, I believe that's spelled "Fudd" and that would explain the high level of incompetence and comedic gold spewing from these fools. And when you think about it, McCain really does seem like he could be Elmer's angry uncle, especially when he complains about that wascally wabbit eating all his good polls.

Now if we could just get Obama to stick a carrot in the barrel of McCain's shotgun...

Yeah, merch sales would do that.

Of course, when I donate, I always include my pocket change. I know it seems weird, but I'm not donating from the top of my budget, but from that teeny bit I had left on my fun money.

HA HA HA! That is hilarious. I'm one of those "foreign donations." I donated $20.08 as part of a 2008 fundraising drive. These odd-numbered donations were big on DailyKos for a while.

I thought it was illegal to donate to a presidential campaign if you weren't an American, or I might have done it.

It is illegal -- if you try to donate from Obama's website, you have to check a statement certifying that you are a US citizen or permanent resident. That's why they're trying to make hay out of it.

FUD -- an old computer-industry acronym for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt", a marketing approach appropriate to a company who knows its products are inferior.

The Hamster. Boy, I'd forgotten The Hamster, and it was great, and all done by a college student in his spare time.

I'm a furriner, I haven't been to the US in years, but even I know that! Silly fundies.

You have proved the NewsMax theory. The money is being funneled from all over the world via the Internets, which is a series of tubes.

Some people have no sense of history.

And some people are heavily invested in writing a version of history that suits the needs of the moment. Thus, the Heritage institute can host a gathering where the following was uttered:
"Let's put this in context," said Heritage legal eagle Hans A. von Spakovsky. "The left has not had unlimited power since 1965."
From , "Been Caught Stealing " http://reason.com/blog/show/129584.html.

Yeah I long for the days of those great leftists like John Stennis and Richard B. Russell and Speaker John McCormick, in LBJ's day...

please someone explain this to me: why are there so many nincompoops on the right

Tautology

This from MSN UK This is what the world thinks of Maverickity and his crew

http://specials.uk.msn.com/NEWS/us-elections/vote/default.aspx

i once gave 9.13 because it's my birthday. 13 makes it doubly suspicious. take that.

Too funny! Clearly they don't quite get the netroots community. I wonder have they ever considered during research before they issue proclamations? I mean like investigating? It must be hard when you 'know' everything to do that though.

The .01 etc is also due to many donors who are contributing as a "tribute" of sorts to a story in one of Obama's speeches. He told a story about an elderly woman who sent him a check for $3.01 and a Bible verse.

Newsmax is just grasping at straws.

And it's not just the primarily-political sites adding odd cents, either. To quote from one of my favorite forums' Obama donation FAQs:

Why are so many people donating $xx.01?
In one of Barack’s speeches, he told us a story about an elderly woman who sent him a check for $3.01 and a Bible verse. The addition of an extra cent is symbolic: every little bit counts.

Goony goon.

Goony goon.

It's even dumber than you think. I live in Bogota, Colombia. I have made 2 donations to Obama's campaign. Both of those donations HAD to be in DOLLARS. There was no option to charge them in foreign currency. In fact, had I used my Colombian credit card, the US Dollar amount would not have changed. What would have changed would have been the amount debited to my card based on the exchange rate at the moment of transaction.

Further, 2 weeks ago I got a call from the Obama campaign. They explained that they needed to confirm my citizenship or they would have to refund my money. To confirm my citizenship, they sent me an email which required me to put my relevant data in and my passport number. The campaign apparently has a huge database with this information and are working hard to make sure every dollar received is legitimate. I was called on a Sunday morning and could hear tons of other people making calls in the background. The campaign is serious about this.

But hey, why do a little reporting (or even critical thinking) when you can just publish smut and get away with it.

"They are obviously converting from local currency to U.S. dollars," said Ken Boehm"

No, stupid. If they are writing a dollar check, there is no reason for them to convert from their own currency. I forget who it was, but a wise Englishman once said, "It is not true that all conservatives are stupid, but it is true that most stupid people are conservatives."

It's a little OT, but I'm reminded of a guy I used to know -- famous among the cognescenti in Connecticut politics -- who had made a small fortune in the chemicals that are used to make perfume.

He'd started from nothing, and with just a high school education in chemistry he realized that the foul stuff, e.g., much of it orginates in the glands under a civet's tail, which provides the base chemicals for fancy perfumes could be bought for next to nothing in certain places in the world, processed cheaply, then sold in bulk to cosmetics companies for a huge markup -- who would then mark it up considerably more. (He had devastating insights into what Hollywood movie goddesses were smearing on themselves.)

In later life, he was quite generous with his money, particularly to political campaigns -- and he was eccentric about it: "Look at the donor lists," he'd say. "Long rows of checks for $500, or $1,000, or even $2,000. You have to investigate to see who is giving money. But you don't have to look hard to see mine."

Cuz he ALWAYS donated in odd amounts, just beneath the maximums that almost everybody else would give: $499.93,maybe or $997.51. There would be a long column of donations for the max, and then another long column of donations the next level below, like $1,500 under $2,000 -- but HIS would be all by itself.

It was magnetic -- nobody, not a political fundraiser nor a journalist, could look at one of those lists and fail to notice this guy's contribution. He got his phone calls returned, his views were considered on all kinds of issues, he got invited to sit on boards and panels, everybody in the biz knew his name. In his own small way, he was a genius.

RIP.

As Hardcle said, Dean supporters added .44.

All my Obama and DNC donations have the .44 tacked on to tell anyone who notices (conservatives, I guess) that I support Dean and the 50 state strategy. This was vital when they griped that Dean couldn't raise money.

I wanted to make clear that my check was NOT going to show up if the DLC took over again.

To think about it, though, aren't all these non-even dollar amounts coming from fake Americans? Technically, they ARE foreign donations.

Even without internet traditions, Newsmax has it backward. The credit card account of the foreigner, not of the Obama campaign, would come back in an unrounded amount, as the foreigner is paying in local currency which is rounded, not in US dollars.

I am Canadian. When I purchase merchandise online from US sites, the US merchant gets paid $100 in the US. To the merchant, it doesn't matter where the customer is located. However, my bill may be $121.29, or more or less, by a few pennies, depending on the US exchange rate the day the transaction is processed.

If this is an example of Republican financial analysis, it is no wonder the deficit is over $10 trillion.

Wanna drive Newsmax batshit carzy? Give amounts like 9.11 and 12.07....and 11.04$

idiots- who are the crazier nuts 9-11 truthers or Newsmax?

Wanna drive Newsmax batshit carzy?

Are you kidding? That ship has sailed.

We're still doing this. There was a recent drive for the DNC on dKos, and 20.08 was a popular gift amount. Those giving more or less than $20 still often added the .08 to the end for symbolism.