Fundraising: Part 2

The other day I posted about first quarter fundraising numbers for all the main (read: real) 2008 Presidential candidates…

And now… with all the first quarter numbers in, I think it’s safe to say, at least one has to think that it is safe to say, that republicans are shaking in their proverbial boots… after all… Democrats beat them by $27 million dollars.

On the republican side, Romney grabbed $23, Giuliani hit $15, McCain underachieved at $12.5 and Huckabee raised a rather pathetic $500,000 for a total of $51 million.

Then come the Democrats, Clinton nailed $26, Obama struck at $25, Edwards grabbed $14, Richardson raised a respectable $6, Dodd hit a tidy $4 and Biden netted $3 for a total of $78 million…

Granted, more fundraising does not a president make… but it’s a damn good start.

Rather than put the Democrats under the microscope, let’s put the republicans under the microscope and see what all this means for them.

After all, as they say; the proof is in the pudding… or in this case, the money…

It’s a popular consensus that out of all the candidates, McCain, even though he raised $12.5 million, was hit hardest as his rather low amounts are troublesome signs of an already-floundering campaign that is seeing its campaign finance operation overhauled due to the less than expected fundraising amounts.

And he hasn’t even “officially” announced his candidacy yet.

Romney, on the other hand, is enjoying the feeling that $23 million can bring.

Too bad he’s at 2-3% in the polls, which means that while he has a lot more money than the other guys, with his low polling, he's going to have to spend a lot more money to catch up.

And then there’s Giuliani, who raised $15 million. Fifteen is an impressive act when you consider the late start his campaign got, but the looming question with him is if he can build on that or not. And the popular thinking is that he won’t, primarily because the gop base doesn’t trust him and are leery about his wife-sitting-in-on-cabinet-meeting-ways.

And Huckabee… well, the less said about that the better…

With these numbers, it’s hard to argue that going forward the Democrats seem to have the energy and momentum… after all, the top two Democrats out-raised the top Republican. And let’s face it, with the incredibly early start of this race coupled with the fact that states that usually don’t matter are suddenly mattering, this race is going to come down to who has the most cash… and if the Dems can out-distance the republicans, the republicans won’t have a whole helluva lot left to work with.

Ain’t it grand?