Obama Raises Big Bucks

So according to pretty much every news source out there, Barack Obama has raised nearly 33 million dollars since April, breaking – no shattering – the previous record for money raised in a three month period by a Democratic Presidential candidate.

Obama’s good fortune seems to have come at the expense of John Edwards, whose campaign could only pull in roughly 9 million dollars. Folks over at the Edwards campaign have already begun spinning things, insisting they’ve had a “great quarter.” Now I don’t proclaim to be an expert on the inner workings of a presidential campaign, but it would seem to me that raising 5 million dollars less in the past three months than you did in the three months prior isn’t a good sign, especially when coupled with news that the guy right above you in most polls pulled in roughly 6 million more in the same period of time. What it’s starting to look like is that Obama’s finally starting to suck support (and dollars) away from Edwards, whose campaign seems likely to stall and fall into the second tier of candidates.

Speaking of the so-called “second tier” of Democratic candidates, the CNN report I happened to read noted that Governor Richardson’s campaign brought in at least 7 million dollars since April, which is roughly a million dollars more than the previous three months. This is yet another bad sign for the Edwards campaign, and as a Richardson supporter, I’m glad to see he’s starting to close the gap between himself and John Edwards. If Governor Richardson can manage a better than expected showing in either Iowa or New Hampshire, coupled with a solid showing in Nevada, he could be poised to present a viable and sensible alternative for folks who might not be sold on HRC or Obama, both of whom have serious flaws as candidates.