McCain out by Sept?

You Decide 2008 has some interesting coverage on John McCain possibly pulling out of the race by September based primarily his poor fundraising efforts to date.

I personally don’t think McCain has much of a shot. I was formerly a fan of who thought he was a simple, kind moderate many years ago, but in recent years he is coming off like the sweet grandpa who is trying to be everyone’s favorite old relative by saying exactly what we want to hear. And not being able to keep up with what most of the country is watching or listening to, or even talking about. I think he could of had a shot if he was 20 or even 10 years younger, but now he seems past his prime and out of place in the current pool of candidates.

Here’s the FOX News coverage on the speculation that he could drop out of the race:

Hillary Wins First Round…! Or does she?

For many of you political junkies out there or just to the people who like keeping up with politics. You might have seen all of the latest headlines popping up in newspapers all over the country, that are loudly saying: “Clinton shatters fund raising records,” “Hillary Clinton sets fund raising record,” or even that “Clinton’s fund raising reaches historic heights.” This may lead you to believe one thing, that Hillary has got this election in the bag. Well, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but THINK AGAIN!

According to recent reports, Obama will come in at $22 million to Hillary’s $26 million (Hillary also transferred another $11 million from her Senate campaign). Surprisingly, a majority of fund raising donors aren’t only going to Team Hillary. Take John Edwars for example, Patrick reports:

Days before the Elizabeth Edwards announcement, I had all but written Edwards off based in part on his online fundraising numbers. Those numbers have since more than doubled, rising by $1.5 – 2 million. It’s clear that Edwards has retained a vast network of traditional donors that belies his recent focus on becoming a labor/netroots darling (24 social networks… oy). Considering the breathless Hillary/Barack coverage over the last two months, Edwards has officially regained the mantle of sleeper.

John Edwards reported that he raised around $14 million this time around. This is what he said in his latest email:

• Total raised: Over $14 million (nearly twice what we raised this quarter last time around)
• Total contributors: 40,000, representing every state of the union
• Grassroots victory: 80 percent of all contributions were $100 or less

So that’s what happened; you pulled through and we exceeded all our expectations, ensuring that this campaign will stay competitive in the crucial months to come.

Even though Team Hillary will try to get as much as possible about her “win,” I truly believe that John Edwards is the real winner this time around. Unlike Hillary and Obama, he isn’t receiving funding from Hollywood and his campaign was hit with some hard news (the blogger he hired, his huge house, and the return of his wife’s cancer.) Even though this isn’t the best quarter, I think he has more up his sleeve and there will be more to come. Don’t count him out yet, he still has tons of fight left in him. John Edwards is for real.

Barack Obama: 25 million from 100,000 donors (updated)

Barack Obama’s camp has finally revealed the amount of money he has raised, and I must say I find the results phenomenal. (For a current tally of money raised by all presidential candidates, see our previous entry)

Barack’s total of 25 million from 100,000 donors, works out to a donation of $250 / person. Hillary Clinton, for comparison, has raised 26 million from 50,000 donors, or $520 per person.

That may not sound all that impressive by itself, but when you also take into the account that, “…many of Clinton’s events required a contribution of $4,600 for access to the senator and other VIPs. That is the maximum amount allowed for an individual to donate by law, with half going for the primary and half for the general. [Whereas] Obama, on the other hand, mostly sought donations of up to $2,300, which means the bulk of his take this quarter will be available for the primary campaign. Obama also made his fundraising task more difficult by refusing to accept money from lobbyists and political action committees, unlike Clinton.”

This leads me to two conclusions:

1) More people (really) like Barack Obama than any other democratic candidate – if you base support on the number of donors then Obama wins, hands down, and
2) Obama will actually have more money to spend on his primary campaign than Clinton or anybody else.

P.S. I am really curious how Mitt Romney has managed to raise 23 million, but I’ll have to research that another time…

Update: official numbers are out, and in terms of the amount of fundraising dollars that can legally be used for the primaries / caucuses it’s:

Obama: 23.5 million (out of 25 million raised)
Clinton: ~20 million (out of 26 million raised)

Mitt Romney got donations from only 34000 individuals, which is $676.47 / person

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

The race to raise money is on, and the first checkpoint just passed at the end of March. With no surprise, Hillary Clinton has broken records and raised $26 million in 3 months, and will add in $10 million from her previous Senate campaign to bring her total to $36 million. John Edwards, who came in second, raised $14 million in the same amount of time. Oddly enough, Barack Obama has not yet revealed his funding so far. As of today, no Republicans announced their fundraising yet.

Updated Totals (click here and here and here for details)

Clinton: 26 million (+ 10 million from senate account)
Obama: 25 million (source)
Romney: 23 million
Guiliani: 15 million
Edwards: > 14 million
McCain: 12.5 million
Al Gore (1999): 8.9 million
Bill Richardson: 6 million
Christopher Dodd: 4 million (+ 5 million from his senate account)
Joe Biden: 4 million

Hillary’s Super Monday

It was a big day in the world of Hillary Clinton today. She held a town hall meeting in Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, and stated that if elected she would create a universal health care system. Also announced today – former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack who backed out of the race last month due to a lack of funds, gave his official endorsement for Clinton.

With all the good news in Iowa, Senator Clinton has also raised the most amount of money in one week – $10 million. The old record was held by John Edwards in 2004.  Man, she’s on a roll!

In related fundraising news, John McCain recently announced that he would not meet expectations by the first deadline for money raising, March 31st. McCain has only held four events since his announcement to join the race, but plans to have an additional 40 scheduled between now and May.