In The 48 hours after winning the Republican primary in New Hampshire, John McCain raised $1m in campaign funding through his official website. The donations were made by credit card and averaged $110. He subsequently amassed a further $6m online, but even that was not enough to stave off defeat at the hands of a well-dug-in party organisation that had already committed itself to George W. Bush. Still, Mr McCain's use of the web to raise funds as well as to organise grassroots volunteers was not lost on the political establishment. To date, fewer than 14m Americans have ever used their credit cards for an online transaction, but as that number surges over the next few years, candidates will be able to use the web to go straight to the voters' wallets. The traditional party machines will increasingly find themselves disintermediated.
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机译：在赢得新罕布什尔州共和党初选中的48小时内，约翰·麦凯恩通过其官方网站筹集了100万美元的竞选资金。这些捐款是通过信用卡进行的，平均金额为110美元。随后，他又在网上筹集了600万美元，但即便如此，这也不足以在一个已经致力于乔治·W·布什（George W. Bush）的，精心研究的党组织的手中避免失败。仍然，麦凯恩先生使用网络筹集资金以及组织基层志愿者的活动并未在政治体制上迷失。迄今为止，只有不到一千四百万美国人使用过信用卡进行在线交易，但是随着这一数字在未来几年中激增，候选人将能够使用网络直接进入选民的钱包。传统的聚会机器将越来越多地发现自己处于非中介状态。
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