Obama Holds Massive Fundraising Advantage

By Cernig

If money talks, then a heck of a lot of George Washingtons are whispering "Obama". The Dem candidate is out-fundraising both his rivals by a margin of better than two-to-one.

Barack Obama raised $41 million in March and had $42 million available to spend against Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in April, campaign finance reports filed Sunday show.

Clinton aides said late Sunday she would report raising about $20 million in March and that she had more than $8 million for the primary available at the beginning of April.

Overall, Obama had $51 million in the bank at the end of March, with nearly $9 million of that available only for the general election.

...Republican John McCain's report showed he raised $15.2 million and had $11.6 million in the bank. The Arizona senator's March figures were his best fundraising performance of the campaign.

Obama's March figure was down slightly on his massive $55 million in February, but while both his rivals are reading reports today that say their contributors swim in small pools and are mainly already maxed out or tapped out, Obama seems to have a nearly inexhaustible supply of smaller donors willing to show grassroots support.

We Brits have been known to cynically observe that whoever raises and spends most wins the U.S. presidential election, regardless of their actual ability or policies. Right now, the money is certainly flowing Obama's way.

Update - Kyle Moore interprets the fundraising numbers for both Dem candidates.

In a race that is still about total delegate count, the Obama campaign can effectively outspend the Clinton campaign by a factor of 2-1. This means that he could outbuy her in every state from here on in, a fact that would allow him to narrow delegate gaps where Clinton is favored to win, while at the same time widen delegate gaps in those states he is favored to win.

In other words, the monetary situation serves as yet another steep obstacle for the Clinton campaign to overcome if she wants to narrow the overall delegate and popular vote gaps down to where she could make a valid appeal to Super Delegates.

But there comes even worse news for the Clinton campaign; it also reported over ten million dollars in debt at the beginning of April.

Comments

[Earl]

Considering that he claims more than 1.3 million individuals donating on top of that...

It's a good thing, in my mind.

[anderson]

Apparently, McCain doesn't have to account for all the free advertising he receives from the networks and cable news media.