Bad for the country? Maybe. Good for Republican fundraising efforts? Without question. That’s the early verdict on Obama’s health care plan. In the hours after the House voted on the bill last night, the RNC’s website received so much traffic, it briefly crashed. By 4:00 PM this afternoon, GOP headquarters had raised $600,000, with money pouring in at what appeared to be about $1,000 a minute.
Most of those dollars came through FireNancyPelosi.com , a colorful if hastily-assembled site launched yesterday. Within hours, the term “fire nancy pelosi” became one of the most-searched terms in Google, and peaked at number two in Google trends. The site Newds.biz, which determines the popularity of Twitter messages, ranked “Fire Nancy Pelosi” as the most popular tweet of the day for conservatives. The RNC confirmed that the number of people who clicked on the Twitter share button at the top of their page had exceeded the website’s daily allotted space on the Twitter network – effectively disabling the link.
Republican fundraisers quickly adjusted their goals upward. The RNC’s site added a high rollers option for donors to contribute $400, up from the $80 suggestion donation listed before the vote