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Obama fundraising fail

Obama fundraising fail

Obama raised $42 million for his campaign in the third quarter, plus another $27.3 million for the DNC.  Naturally, the top line $70 million joint number is being hyped.

These numbers come from an Obama campaign statement, the official FEC report has not yet been released, so we don’t know details such as how much cash on hand the campaign has (Bush had $70 million at this point).

That’s a lot of money, but the campaign is trying to spin it as more of a victory and sign of strength than it really is:

  • Obama is nowhere near on track to raise the $1 billion he wants for his campaign.
  • Obama’s $42 million haul is less than the $50 million George W. Bush raised in the third quarter of 2003, the comparable time period.
  • The high campaign number of donors and low average donation numbers does not reflect wide support, but gimmicks like the $3 dinner raffle.

Comparisons to what Republican primary candidates have raised are meaningless.  Until a Republican nominee is selected, a lot of people are holding onto their check books.

It’s clear that Obama will raise hundreds of millions, but the billion dollar candidate may not make it there.

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Comments

Nothing to see here, move along.

Bill Daley

[…] JACOBSON: Obama Fundraising Fail: “Obama is nowhere near on track to raise the $1 billion he wants for his campaign. Obama’s […]

It will be interesting to trace the IP addresses of the online donors. Jugears carried Gaza County precincts in 2008; I wonder if he can do it again.

Ah, but the fail is even larger. $42M in 2011 is the equivalent of $34M in 2003; which makes Obama’s fundraising achievement about 2/3 of Bush’s at the same point in his Presidency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s campaign raised more than $70 million combined for his re-election and the Democratic Party during the summer, an amount that gives him a clear financial advantage over his Republican rivals even as faces economic and political headwinds.

The smoke and mirrors are really out on this story.

The fundraising total announced Thursday exceeds a goal set by the campaign of $55 million combined for the July-September fundraising period but is about $16 million less than Obama raised during the April-June quarter.

    Neo in reply to Neo. | October 13, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    In addition to the money raised directly for his campaign, Mr. Obama helped the Democratic National Committee raise $27.3 million for a combined total of nearly $70 million during July, August and September.

[…] right, I said Bush, as in George W., who in 2003 raised more in the relevant quarter than Obama’s vaunted political machine raised in this one. Obama […]

Going off of Ameryx’s comment above, not only is there inflationary pressure (meaning that Obama’s take in today’s dollars is less valuable than the money that GW Bush raised in 2003, there’s also the faltering economy to deal with. In 2003, the economy was recovering, in contrast to the economy actually faltering and starting to stall now.

Unless there’s a drastic turnaround in the economy in the next 6 months (unlikely from all economic indicators) Obama doesn’t have a chance at getting to the $1 Billion mark. In fact, I’ll be surprised if he hits $750 Million at the rate he’s moving at.

* SHRUG * I think that with all that money obama will be creating more jobs trying to keep the presidency than he ever did while being president

DDsModernLife | October 13, 2011 at 7:15 pm

Mark Levin just read this post on the air; says, “This guy [William Jacobson] is good.” Truth is, if you read this blog and listen to Mark Levin, you’ll be entertained and well-informed.

    DINORightMarie in reply to DDsModernLife. | October 13, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    I heard Mark Levin read out this blog post tonight in my car and almost cheered!! Not the first time he’s noted Prof. Jacobson, but so good to hear the professor recognized by The Great One.

    I believe this blog has made a huge difference in “the great conversation” of what is this ObamaNation.

    Kudos, sir!

Will the good professor ever be the same again now that Mark Levin has referenced him?

I hope the reference doesn’t attract any more trolls…

I come not to gloat over Cesar’s failure but to question it.

So Obama isn’t on track to hit 1 Billion in campaign funds.

SO WHAT?

GWB had more money but he had every major newspaper, every major news agency (save Fox) attacking him relentlessly. Even so he had to struggle to overcome this disadvantage, spending money as fast as he could raise it.

Will Obama face the same hurdle? C’mon. Be honest. The MSM won’t be. Honest, that is.

ABC,CBS,NBC,CNN,NPR,NYT,WP,LT,USAT,Time,Newsweek,Rolling Stone,HuffPo,DailyKos,Moveon and many, many more will be doing Obama’s campaigning non-stop 24/7 without being paid one dime.

So he only raised 42 Million? That’s 42 Million in gravy money that no Republican will EVER be given. Republicans and especially conservatives (the two are not synonyms) will never have all those forces lined up to get them elected or re-elected. Ever. Every dime a conservative and even a Mitt Romney can raise will be needed to get out the message that the MSM will hand over to Democrats for free.

That said, what does Barry McFail’s shortcomings in the fundraising actually translate into?

Nothing.

Go ahead. Gloat. Yeah, Obama sucks hind teat in every endeavor that calls for actual hard work. But that means nothing.

When you are playing with a deck stacked in your favor it really doesn’t matter how lousy you are at playing cards.

CNN covered this last night without any accompanying context of the past performance of Bush. Needless to say, I was impressed, as I’m sure was intended. This puts things into perspective.

Professor:

Great Shout out for you and the website from Mark Levin last night on his show. The numbers will be going up from here shortly. Great site…..love it. Keep up the great work!

[…] raised by the DNC. His own campaign only got $42 million, nowhere what he needs to hit a billion. William Jacobson examines the latest data and makes some shrewd observations. Obama raised $42 million for his […]