Nick Beaudrot at Cogitamus sums up why giving to campaigns is worthwhile:

Contributing to campaigns isn’t “throwing money at the problem”. It’s trading your time for someone else’s time. After all, the dollar that you contribute is one you earned at some hourly or monthly rate. It’s going into a campaign’s bank account so that they can pay staffers to canvass neighborhoods, or buy food for volunteers to sit around the office and stuff envelopes, or to buy part of a 30-second TV ads that thousands of voters in the district will see all at once. This is a good trade, since you, the Cogitamus reader, cannot personally travel to every district in the country and convince voters to vote for Democrats.

This is why, in the emails I’ve sent personally to some of you, I’ve suggested giving and/or volunteering. For me, in startup mode, giving is going to be the only way I can really participate (aside from this blog, I guess), so that’s my emphasis. The Obama campaign is going to be doing something in your state, too, so if you can’t give or don’t want to, consider volunteering.