Obama raises record $66M

[Wretched Excess]

but it isn't all good news.  since he opted out of public financing, he has to leave the campaign trail to
shake down fat cat donors fairly frequently.  and he has created a massive (bloated?) campaign apparatus;
remember those 300 foreign policy advisers?  he's got to rake in major money because he has created a
monster, and it has to be fed.

Obama raises record $66M
August total part of senator's goal to raise $300 million

Potentially offering some relief for increasingly nervous Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign said Sunday that he raised $66 million in August, his top month ever and easily a new monthly record for presidential fundraising.

Adding more than 500,000 new donors during the month, his campaign said it has now received contributions from more than 2.5 million people since the start of Obama's 19-month-old presidential bid.

With advertising and get-out-the-vote spending already ratcheting up in advance of the Nov. 4 election, Obama's aides said the campaign ended August with $77 million in the bank.

The Illinois Democrat's previous best month was in February, when he raised $55 million amid an intense nomination fight with Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Still, Obama will have to match or exceed his August pace if he is to meet his campaign's goal of raising $300 million during a five-month period that ends in October. Combined with primary campaign fundraising, Obama appears poised to raise more than a half-billion dollars before November.

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[Wretched Excess]

bingo.  he spent $55 million in an historically slow month.  I would wager that a sizable portion of that is
just salaries and overhead.  Didn't he say that his national campaign staff was 2,500 employees back when
he was trying to use his "experience" in running his presidential campaign (as though that isn't what "campaign
managers" do) as a qualification for the presidency?

Sen. Obama's campaign is spending cash at a rapid clip. It has about 2,500 employees on its payroll and a sizable ground presence that includes hundreds of local campaign offices. In July and August, traditionally a relatively slow period for politicking, the Obama campaign was spending about $55 million a month.

Link

[Wretched Excess]

interesting.  in july, he spent more than he raised.  wouldn't it be a cool story if he was forced to cut back his bloated
campaign staff to save money?  I can see the headline now, "Obama Lays Off Hundreds in Campaign Cutbacks", page 27.

In July, Obama spent $57 million - more than any prior month and more than the $51 million he collected that month. A large chunk of that cash went to the salaries of his expanding field operation.

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