Obama Piggybank Broke

A few days ago American Thinker did a post on how the ∅bama money machine was breaking down.

We have heard quite a lot over the past year about Barack Obama's fund raising prowess. But the good times may be over.

Now it suddenly appears that John McCain and his campaign are no slouches in this area. The announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate has changed things.

Ah yes. Finally. Change we can believe in.

The American Thinker links to a Wall Street Journal article.

During the primary campaign, Sen. Obama set fund-raising records while Sen. McCain struggled to meet monthly budgets. Now it appears Sen. Obama's money advantage is far smaller than it was assumed to be early on.

Sen. McCain's fund-raising operation has rebounded since he emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee. One reason is due to a fund-raising account that allows Republicans to solicit individual donations of as much as about $70,000, far above the normal limit of $2,300 per individual per election.

How can they do it? They take the money given and divvy it up into smaller chunks to stay within the law. ∅bama has a similar operation but it is not working as well as the McCain fund raising efforts.

Sen. Obama turned down the government funds, opting instead to raise money from the public. When he secured the Democratic nomination in early June, Sen. Obama's campaign said it hoped to raise a total of $480 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Fund-raising reports through July show that the DNC and Sen. Obama have raised about $150 million but spent much of it already; going into August, the campaign reported having $68.5 million on hand. The reports also showed that in July, the campaign was spending at a rate that was faster than donations were coming in.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on its fund raising or spending in August. One major donor said it is likely the campaign has only a small cash cushion at the moment.

The Journal goes on to describe how the money being raised will go to support Republicans in House and Senate races. Of course all the money coming from the McCain campaign will go to unify the message of the Republicans across the board.

It looks like the ∅ campaign is having trouble raising money according to their plan.

After months of record-breaking fund raising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama's fund raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign's decision to bypass public financing for the general election is upon them.

Pushing a fund raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of Obama's national finance committee, calling their recent efforts "extremely anemic."

The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fund raising totals have suggested Obama's decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Sen. John McCain that many had originally predicted.

Extremely anemic. Which means that instead of campaigning ∅ will have to take time out to raise money. It becomes a vicious cycle. The more time he spends fund raising the less time he has to garner free media making him look weaker, lowering his fund raising ability.

The Obama campaign is struggling to meet the goals it set in mid-June of raising $300 million for the campaign and more than $150 million for the party, fund raisers said. As of the end of July, the Obama campaign was well short of the $100 million a month pace it had set, taking in about $77 million between the campaign and the party that month.

Moreover, McCain will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Obama must do.

I think we can start a death watch for the Obama campaign. One sign is that they begin thrashing around striking in every direction and going off message. What was their message? Let me see if I can remember. Oh yeah. Hope and Change. And what have they been doing lately? Well it seems like Sarah Palin has become a burr under their saddle. And they are lashing out hard. This has two effects. It leaves McCain untouched and draws sympathy for Palin. Every blow they strike comes back at them doubled. What is the best thing to do in that case? Nothing. Get back on message and sell your plan. I believe it is something they are incapable of. They can't hold their fire and regroup. Why? They don't have the strength to appear weak.

The New York Times has an interesting report from California.

A California fund-raiser familiar with the party’s August performance estimated that it raised roughly $17 million last month, a drop-off from the previous month, and finished with just $13 million in the bank.

Still, the Obama campaign said last Thursday that it had raised $10 million over the Internet in the 24 hours after the speech by Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, at the Republican convention on Wednesday, a one-day record for the campaign.

Hmmm. I find that suspicious. Of course they can announce anything they want and it will be a while until the facts can be checked.

The Republican Party can spend unlimited amounts of its money independent of the McCain campaign. It can also split the costs of so-called hybrid advertisements with the campaign, commercials that must promote not only Mr. McCain but also other Republicans down the ticket, something media strategists said could be ineffective when trying to create a cohesive message. Nevertheless, McCain fund-raisers pointed out the pressure is now on the Obama campaign to raise far more than it ever has before.

Well yes it could be ineffective if there is no unified message. So what might a unified message look like? How about Energy security = economic security = national security. Gee. That was tough. How did I outsmart the media strategists? Just lucky I guess. We will see if the Republicans follow my advice.

So how is fund raising in the black community coming along? For that we have to depend on the BBC for our news.

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

The EFCC said it had seized 74m naira ($630,000, £314,000), but said no Nigerian laws had been broken.

US political parties are not allowed to receive contributions from abroad.

Stock exchange chairwoman Ndi Okereke-Onyuike is also the head of Africans for Obama, a Nigeria-based support group.

She was interviewed by the EFCC after media reports that the Obama campaign had disassociated itself from the group.

Well, well, well. ∅bama was once associated with the group but now that the fraud is out in the open they are under the bus. What an embarrassment. I wonder if ∅bama has any other friends in the world who would like to see him become President?

How about a Saudi Billionaire?

New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama.

“I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him,” Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter.

“The friend’s name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas,” Sutton said. “He is the principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama.”

Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School?

Well there is enough there that you can start looking deeper into the connection. I want to go forward with another of ∅bama's overseas friends. Nadhmi Auchi.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Well that is right neighborly of him.

You know if Obama's overseas pals don't come through for him and Americans won't pøny up for the phøny he could very well lose the election. I hope so.

And to finish this off how about a little anecdotal evidence from No Quarter

Comment by sayitisntso 2008-09-09 00:43:42

“Every advantage it seemed that Obama has had is evaporating. Obama was supposed to have so much more money. Perhaps he does but he certainly isn’t spending it on ads in Michigan where McCain seems to be running 3 ads to every one for Obama. I wouldn’t be surpised to see McCain taking the lead in Michigan with the next poll.”

YaYYYYYY!

Well that is good news indeed. Without Michigan it will be nearly impossible for ∅bama to win the election.

Let me just add that there is so much I have left out of this report. Read all the supporting material and remember Google is your friend.

Cross Posted at Classical Values