"Nobu" says that there are many explanations for the surge of US Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and some attributable to his effective online campaign.
He states that "in contrast to Japan, there is no limit to the amount of funds you can raise over there in America for presidential election." And then, "It's all about (three yen signs) money, money, money (three more yen signs) in the USA."
He then moves into explaining how things work:
"Here is the site for (candidate) Howard Dean (links it): http://dean2004meetup.com ", and then goes on to add:
"This site is easy to access. It is easy to participate in. It is easy to leave your opinions, too" ("accessu wa shiyasuku, kanyo ga shiyasuku, ikken mo iiyasuku")
"For those that wish to make contributions, these can even be done in small denominations, and can very easily been done with just one mouseclick." And, "Well, we have examples of this in Japan, but the running costs are high."
There are several other comments made about the Dean website. Essentially it is an effort to inform people about such a political website in the USA, help them locate it through URLs, and finally, the interested party in Japan ends up with a link to the contribution page for Howard Dean. There is no clear disclaimer about foreign contributions being illegal.
Granted, this effort, upon analysis, does not seem as explicit nor in skirting Federal Law as do the current websites in Japan (in Japanese) soliciting campaign funds overseas for Dennis Kucinich in an elaborate money laundering operation using the sales of his books as a front, it does tend to call strongly into question the activities of certain Presidential Campaigns and their legal status in doing this or allowing it to be done.
Gore supports Dean - now there's a perfect marriage.
Ironically, she wanted me to help her get permanent residence in the US. I advised her to find an American guy to marry her---she's probably done so by now...