Creating a personal bandwagon effect

I'm writing to you this morning from Las Vegas. After the New Hampshire primary last week, we set a goal of 100,000 online donors in 2008 -- a goal we hoped to reach before the Nevada caucuses on Saturday. Last night we got there five days early. Think about that: 100,000 donors in 15 days. That response has boosted our entire organization and proven that this movement for change is just getting started. In town halls and rallies across Nevada, I can feel that momentum. And it's clear that more than 100,000 people are feeling it all across the country. But we need to build an operation that can compete in all fifty states, so we are setting our sights even higher. Our new goal: 125,000 donors by the Nevada caucuses this Saturday, January 19th. Now is the time to step up and own a piece of this campaign. Your support is so crucial to reaching our goal that one of the supporters who already gave this year is waiting to match your gift today.

Whether any of this is true matters little, the purpose is to gather the maximum support on the principle that the tide is already flowing in Obama's favour. Barack Obama is setting up supporting him as a norm for American voters in order that it is seen as the thing to do; whether it has the desired effect will be determined in Nevada on Saturday, it is a well used tactic in advertising and commercial promotion and fairly common in political communication as well.