Ruh Roh

(Is his emo/hippy army scaring donors away?)

Obama’s decision to be the first candidate to ever turn down public financing may turn out to be a huge strategic blunder.

Pushing a fund-raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply
worded note last week to Illinois members of its national finance committee,
calling their recent efforts “extremely anemic.”

At a convention-week meeting in Denver of the campaign’s top fund-raisers, buttons with the image of a money tree were distributed to those who had already contributed the maximum $2,300 to the general election, a subtle reminder to those who had failed to ante up...

But the campaign is struggling to meet ambitious fund-raising goals it set for the campaign and the party. It collected in June and July far less from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s donors than originally projected. Moreover, Mr. McCain, unlike Mr. Obama, will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Mr. Obama must do.

A spokesman said that August was its best fund-raising month yet and that the campaign’s fund-raising was on track. But the campaign finished July with slightly less cash on hand with the Democratic National Committee compared with Mr. McCain and the R.N.C. The Obama campaign has also been spending heavily, including several million more than the McCain campaign in advertising in August.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.

Could this be why he’s now gone back on his pledge against coordinating with 527 groups?

Update: Obama has record $66 million dollar August! But only nets about 16% of that.

I realize he had his convention in August but a lot of that was covered by the DNC. What on earth is he doing to burn through 50 mil in a month? I didn’t think emo’s cost that much? Do they?

Time to pass the hat.