…to look at the quarterly financial reports for Obama for America. Right now the numbers are meaningless; it’s completely unreasonable to expect that the President could raise the same amount of money in the first quarter of 2007 (almost $26 million) that he did in a portion of the first quarter of 2011 ($2.3 million). However, it is reasonable to compare 2nd quarter 2007 ($33 million) to 2nd quarter 2011; you see, when the Obama campaign brags about the $750 million that they raised last go-round (and their plans to surpass that with $1 billion this go-round) they’re including the roughly $350 million that they raised (and spent) on the primary. If the Obama campaign is truly serious about bettering that total, that means that they have to better their total now, which is incidentally a period where the President is not actually competing against any sort of meaningful primary opponent. If they don’t, they won’t hit $750 million. They’ll be lucky to even hit $500 million, in fact.
Unless the Obama campaign thinks that they can raise roughly two and a half times as much in the general election in 2012 as they did in the general election in 2008…]
Moe Lane
Just a reminder that Obama’s fundraising apparatus is corrupt and I believe you may be making your projections based on the assumption that his campaign will follow the law this time. They turned off their address verification for online contributions in 2008 and certainly will do it again. This allows Obama to get rivers of cash, including foreign contributions. In addition, there are hundreds of billionaires in the world who can fund Obama’s entire campaign from their own fortunes without any inconvenience.
Cynthia: I look forward to the Democrats trying something like that when the GOP has control of the portion of the government with subpoena powers. Particularly since we just put sixty-five screaming maniacs in the House, with as low an opinion about the motives of Democrats as you or I. 🙂
If they miss their target, will chortling be allowed? I love a good chortle and will need to plan ahead with supplies and things.