Julie, Mary & Michele: Did you see David Brooks’ NYTimes column (”Questions for Dr. Retail“) about the Obama marketing strategy? It’s pure genius, and very balanced.

Also, heard a great commentary by Kieth Olberman and Chris Matthews last night about how it’s difficult for Clinton and McCain now that Obama’s branding message has been so crystallized by results. The gist of it was that Hillary’s already learned that it’s futile to campaign against “hope” — and what’s McCain’s message supposed to be now? “No We Can’t?”

In terms of Barack’s email strategy, the numbers speak for themselves. He’s raised more so far in small-money donations ($32 million last month alone) than any candidate in the history of American politics. Meanwhile, Hillary’s already tapped out a lot of her supporters because she’s relied on big-money donations to fuel her campaign — and many of those people have already given all they can legally give to support her Primary bid.

Barack, on the other hand, can tap his list of some 750k online donors via email anytime (100k first-time donors in January alone!).

Where does all that money come from? Communication, persuasion, and telling people who can only afford to spend 20 bucks or buy a t-shirt that THEY are the ones his campaign is about.

Powerful stuff.

That said, his style is – in my not-so-humble marketer opinion – a winning one. Hillary may well actually be the the more qualified candidate but Barack is the one that incites passion, across age, gender and ethnic groups. At this point, I think many believe we need an ‘energizer” more than we need “experience.” And, qualifications don’t necessarily translate into achievement.

Tom