September Fundraising, Advantage: Obama

For all you Obama donors out there, that donation therapy (give $5 to Obama whenever you get angry or depressed about something McCain-Palin has done/said) is working. You'll be seeing lots more of our fave candidate on TV I'm betting--even before his Oct 29 primetime appearance-- because over the weekend, Obama's camp released their official fundraising and spending numbers and according to today's Wall Street Journal, "Sen. Barack Obama set a new record for presidential fund raising in September, with more than $150 million in contributions, [McCain took public financing of $84 million, leaving him a good, but not astronomical $47 million to spend in the next two weeks. --MEH] allowing him to swamp Republican rival Sen. John McCain in spending on advertising and organizing in the final days of the campaign. The Democratic candidate's one-month figure is nearly double what Sen. McCain received in public financing for the final two months of the campaign. That nearly doubles the previous fund-raising record of $375 million for a full campaign cycle set by President George W. Bush in 2004. And Sen. Obama has one more month of fund raising to go. In a video emailed to supporters Sunday morning, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe admonished donors to keep giving. "We're always on the lookout for expansion," he said.

Of course, McCain can't pass up the opportunity to imply that there's something shady going on besides folks liking the Other Guy better. "Sen. McCain, appearing Sunday morning on Fox News, portrayed the report more darkly, repeatedly referring to the Watergate scandal, saying that was the kind of corruption that comes as the result of unlimited funds. 'The dam is broken. We're now going to see huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal.'"I don't know if I'd bring up Watergate if I were him. Might make people ask where McCain's "pal" Gordon Liddy is these days.

I love it--now that the Democrat is the one wielding the fatter bank account, suddenly folks on the other side are railing about how "elections are not auctions." I guess it's only okay if you use your wife's money to buy elections.

And I so love Wonkette's delightful Snark-fest: "Since Barack Obama has a full 137.99% of the entire world's supply of dollars, John McCain now finds himself at a financial disadvantage! He's stuck with a pauper's sum of $84 million in [*aristocratic shudder*] "public" funds, which is what Joe the Plumber makes in one hour. In other words, John McCain now knows what it's like to be a Welfare Queen, and it's not as fun as Ronald Reagan made it out to be. What's a broke presidential nominee to do when he can't legally raise funds for his campaign, accept private donations above $2,300, or accept donations from foreigners? Answer: raise funds for his campaign by asking Russians to privately donate $5,000 sums which he will accept. Do loopholes justify this? Eh, maybe, but when you get caught doing this sort of thing it's safer to just call it a mistake. That's what the McCain campaign has apparently been doing, illegally sending fundraising letters to illegal Russian donors asking them for illegal amounts of money. " Uh....Hello??? What??