They signed on for Hope and Change, Politico reports, but have become quickly disillusioned by the “soulless political behemoth” than Barack Obama has become in the White House.  The bundlers attracted to Obama in 2007-8 helped push the candidate from a one-term Senate backbencher vying potentially for a VP slot on a Hillary Clinton ticket to the party’s nominee and eventual President.  And now many of them won’t be back:

When Senator Barack Obama began running for president in 2007, a small handful of determined, inspired supporters found a new political calling. A new group of professionals – from a San Juan jewelry story owner to a West Coast biotech executive – raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each for him and their “bundling” was crucial in helping Obama offset Hillary Clinton’s profound financial and institutional advantages.

Four years later, many of those new bundlers say they won’t be coming back. For reasons ranging from disillusion and dissatisfaction to an overriding sense that the once idealistic Obama crusade has become yet another soulless political behemoth, that inspired cadre of early Obama supporters has largely been replaced by professional Democratic Party operatives. …

The shift among bundlers is part of a broader transformation of an insurgent candidate of hope and change to an incumbent president grinding out his re-election amid the very real and often daunting world of Washington politics. As POLITICO reported recently, Obama’s small dollar fundraising effort will rely more on technical muscle and massive numbers – and less on raw inspiration – in 2012 than it did in 2008. Calls to most of the 105 people who “bundled” more than $200,000 for Obama in 2008 but didn’t appear on a list of bundlers released last week suggest the same is true of some of his more large-sum volunteer fundraisers. While Obama’s campaign always depended in part on Chicago institutional money, office-seekers, and other traditional fundraising sources, the new campaign will be more machine and less dream, more sweat and less inspiration.

Some of them aren’t coming back because Obama gave them plum assignments in the diplomatic corps, a traditional reward for fundraisers.  Half of those who raised $500,000 or more got appointments in the Obama administration, which means that they’re not available for fundraising in this cycle.  Given the economic collapse, a few more might no longer be in position to do much bundling, either.  However, it’s also clear that there has been a falloff of enthusiasm for Obama among his former backers, who bet big on Hope and Change and got Chicago Machine instead.

But does it matter?  As the lead paragraph notes, the appearance of these first-time bundlers mattered in 2007 because of Hillary Clinton and her ability to raise funds.  At that time, the Clintons were the Democratic establishment, and even for those iconoclasts with one eye on reality, the safe bet for the nomination.  Obama needed to find non-traditional channels to raise funds in 2007 especially, and even in part of 2008, in order to compete with the Clinton machine.

Now, it’s Obama who represents the Democratic establishment.  Unless someone plans a serious primary challenge — and the time is all but expired on that kind of effort — Obama has access to the establishment bundlers this time around, as well as the rest of the traditional Democratic fundraising infrastructure.  He doesn’t need alternate channels for contributions, at least not in the same sense he did in 2007.  This time, he has the field to himself, an advantage that most incumbent presidents have in re-election campaigns, with the only exceptions being those who faced credible primary challenges, such as Jimmy Carter did from Ted Kennedy in the 1980 cycle.

That’s why the Obama campaign says they can count on “massive numbers,” and why the loss of the novice bundlers won’t make a financial impact on his re-election campaign.  Whether it indicates a loss of base enthusiasm and a narrowing of support among voters is another question entirely.