Who decides what causes are "good" causes?

After reading Chapter 6 in CauseWired, I couldn't help but think about the notion of deciding what is a true and undefiled "cause." Is it right to call a political campaign a "good cause" and put it in the same category with Kiva's lending organization? This caused me to think through my definition of a cause and what I think is justifiable.

If someone believes 100% in a political candidate and chooses to give money to their campaign via the internet, I think that's acceptable. Watson reported that the 2008 primary election campaign introduced an innovative way of gaining supporters, the internet. Clinton & Obama used the internet as a tool to not only gain "political supporters" of their campaign, but gain monetary support from those activists. Obama put forth the notion that "we all need to put our money together for the campaign, hold our own political rally events, and combine our resources" in order to succeed.... and evidently his theory was a great success.

I'm not sure if I would agree wholeheartedly that by supporting Obama's presidential campaign (which the total amount spent on his campaign made me want to throw up) you are supporting a "cause" in life.

Is his multi-million/billion dollar campaign a cause worth supporting? I would argue not. Realistically he could gain monetary support from a plethora of political resources, and Americans could in part, donate their money for a cause that is actually making a difference in this world.

I know it sounds like "bashing the president" talk here, and to clarify my initial support for the president, I voted for him in the 2008 election and support his ideas and motives.... now if he would just follow through with what he "promised" before election, I would be a happier and more content American citizen.

I think it's interesting that political activism was presented in Watson's text as a nation of being "cause wired." I want to look into the 2008 campaign in a bit more detail in order to decipher how much money was dontated through the internet and if the internet and use of technology truely made the difference in the campaign.