A funny thing happened on the way to the campaign finance filings. For the second month in a row, Team Romney has beat Team Obama in the fundraising sweepstakes. Romney and the Republican Victory effort raised $106 million to President Obama and the Democrat’s effort’s $71 million.
What has shifted since Obama broke the records in 2008 set by George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004? The answer is not global warming. To quote Democrat strategist James Carville, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
The traditional strength of Democrat campaigns like Obama’s has been in small donor categories and unions while Republicans have relied on larger, more sizable contributions from individual donors and businesses.
According to this story in the New York Times, Romney raised about a third of his total in checks of under $250. Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee now have about $160 million in cash.
In 2008, Obama also depended on Republican donors in the Silicon Valley and Wall Street who believed that due to the financial crisis, Obama’s message of change and promises to fix the economy were a potent message. In the end, big business donors want to be with the winner.
But, has Obama delivered on his promises? Some would say that the country is more divided than ever and the economic conditions Obama promised to fix are stuck with unemployment at a stagnant 8.2%. Compare this to four years ago when June 2008 unemployment rate was 5.6%.
The unemployment rate for blacks rose from 13.6% to 14.4% according to the latest figures of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor statistics.
It could be a long, hot summer for President Obama.
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