We’ll still probably be greatly outspent by the left since they have a large number of fat-cats who will donate to 527s, but we’re certainly not going into the fall campaign unarmed:
WASHINGTON - John McCain and the Republican National Committee started August with a hefty $96 million, financially flush and strongly positioned to compete with prolific fundraiser Barack Obama and (his) Democrats.
Republicans have been trying to even out the financial playing field after trailing Democrats in overall fundraising for most of the election cycle.
McCain has been a subpar fundraiser and has lagged the much-more adept Obama in monthly campaign tallies. But the RNC, with big-draw President Bush helping, has trounced its Democratic counterpart in collections. That has helped McCain and the GOP stay competitive financially with Obama and the Democratic National Committee.
The July numbers reflect how far McCain and the Republicans have come.
McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the GOP presidential nomination, and had $21 million available to spend, while the RNC brought in nearly $26 million, and had $75 million on hand to compete with the Democrats.
Money doesn’t win elections (just ask Hillary, who once had vastly more funds than Obama), but the fact that the GOP has managed, in this allegedly massively anti-GOP year, to have nearly $100 million ready for the fall campaign shows that, just perhaps, support for the GOP isn’t quite as anemic as the punditry and conventional wisdom claims. I think that a lot of illusions will be cleared away in November, on both sides (though I suspect that the left is in for a far ruder awakening than the right is).
Tags: fundraising, John McCain, RNC
August 15th, 2008
Seems to be more and more the case that while Obama will outspend McCain, the overall battle between Democrat and Republican will be more equal:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain raised more than $22 million in June, his best fundraising performance of the year, and ended the month with nearly $27 million cash on hand.
Campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday that McCain and the national Republican Party together entered July with about $95 million in the bank. The Republican National Committee, which has been raising money jointly with McCain, collected nearly $26 million in June and had nearly $69 million on hand, officials said.
The campaign’s fundraising has given McCain the ability to spend more on television advertising than Democrat Barack Obama in key battleground states. Davis said about half of its income had been spent on television advertising.
Obama has not revealed his June fundraising.
In announcing McCain’s fundraising, Davis portrayed the campaign’s financial position as far brighter than ever before. He said the joint RNC-McCain fundraising through direct mail is now exceeding President Bush’s direct mail fundraising in 2004.
“We will have significant resources to prosecute a campaign that is very robust,” Davis said.
I wonder why Obama hasn’t released his June totals yet? I guess he doesn’t have to - but you’d think that if he were greatly outpacing McCain, he’d want to trumpet that…hey, just askin’….
The really crucial thing here for the GOP is the $69 million the RNC has - McCain is taking public financing, so all the money McCain raises must be spent by the end of August. That $69 million (which is likely to rise) will be used on party efforts to help McCain - and down-ballot GOPers (where we are trying to turn expected losses at least into holding our own). Meanwhile, the DNC is effectively broke, the Democrats can’t raise enough to pay for their convention and while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a good sized bank account, it seems that Obama is sucking up all the rest of leftwing money, which opens the question about how down-ballot Democrats will fare even if Obama wins.
Things like the money totals; the continued ability of the military to secure recruits; the ability of President Bush to win on FISA and on war funding; the abysmal Congressional approval ratings….all fo this indicates that while Obama is still the favorite to win in November, he’s only marginally so and, meanwhile, the overall left - and the Democratic party - can’t figure itself a shoo-in (though, of course, they do believe that…and I hope they keep on believing they’ve got it in the bag).
My view is that the American people are worn out - tired out Iraq, true (but not so tired they are willing to lose in order to get out), but also tired of Congressional scandals (and, Donks, William Jefferson - you forced him to resign, yet?), tired of political back-biting, tired of heated rhetoric on energy while gas prices continue to rise, tired of shrinking home equity…change is, indeed, wanted and that is the whole point of Obama…but if specific change is proposed, which way will the electorate go? McCain is offering concrete proposals, while Obama keeps things as vague as he can. Which will actually resonate come November?
Tags: Barack Obama, Defeaticrats, fundrasing, John McCain, oil price, RNC
July 11th, 2008
While much of the RNC’s attention has been on facing Hillary Clinton in November, it is now appearing that they are considering the possibility (perhaps even likelihood) that Barack Obama will be the Democrats’ nominee. Today, the RNC has released the Obama Spendometer, which details the hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending (to be funded by all of us) he is proposing.
This is not all that surprising… Democrats have been attacking John McCain since he officially became the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. If Democrats are going to throw mud, it’s time for the RNC to throw some truth back at them.
UPDATE: Looks like the Minions of Media Matters are jumping on this quickly with their usual talking points.
UPDATE: The dirty politics of the Democratic Party… look at their website… mostly attacking Bush, McCain, Karl Rove, and the Republican Party.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And Jay Cost over at Real Clear Politics says “not so fast” on the coronation of Obama.
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, RNC
February 13th, 2008
Yeah, I ponied up - gotta win this year, ya know?
Hey, have you thought about just what a President Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama would be like?
Ok, now that you’ve got that nightmare firmly in your head, perhaps a trip over to the RNC would be a worthwhile activity?
Tags: fundraising, RNC
January 25th, 2008
This is the spirit we’re wanting:
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Mike Duncan believes Republicans can beat either of the two top Democrats racing for their party’s nomination.
For Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Duncan says it comes down to trust. Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) weakness, on the other hand, is his experience, according to Duncan.
Duncan continually brought up Clinton and Obama during a Wednesday morning breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. Pointing to internal poll numbers, the RNC chairman repeatedly insisted that no matter who Republicans nominate, the Democratic candidate can be defeated in November.
Internal RNC polls show Clinton has significant trust issues with voters, who also worry Obama has too little experience to be president.
“With Sen. Clinton, it comes down to trust,” Duncan said. “She’s a lifelong liberal politician with some political baggage.”
The RNC’s polling on Clinton found that less than 50 percent of respondents see her as “honest and trustworthy.”
Sixty-five percent say she “will say or do anything to get elected” and 68 percent “agree that Sen. Clinton will raise their taxes.”
The polling on Obama is not quite as damaging on its face. Only 40 percent of respondents to the RNC’s survey agree that Obama “has the experience necessary to be Commander-in-Chief.” Forty-nine percent said Obama has a “record of accomplishment,” but only 19 percent say they are “very familiar” with the senator’s positions. Forty-four percent of respondents in the RNC poll view Obama as a uniter of Democrats and Republicans.
“His rhetoric is very good. He’s a great speaker. But at the end of the speech, people go, ‘Where’s the beef?’ ” Duncan said.
Naturally, Duncan’s job is to rally the base and get everyone willing to fight - but he’s also got some good points, and as RNC fiundraising was the bright spot for the GOP in 2007, Duncan certainly has the resources to press the Democrats hard. The pragmatic facts of political life are that in a national election, conservatism will always beat liberalism unless conservatism is split and/or demoralised. In 1992 and 96, it was split; in 2006, it was demoralised. But if we can get the GOP base energised and united, then there’s no Democrat we can’t beat - and beating a babe-in-the-woods like Obama or a corrupt party hack like Hillary should be not only doable, but lots of fun.
Lets have at it!
Tags: RNC
January 24th, 2008
