The Pink Flamingo :: Could Obama Have Money Problems or Is Big Mac Having a Money Attack?

I’ve been collecting links about financing and John McCain’s funding problems. There are times when I like to do this and see what develops. I think today the Dems have revealed their hand when the filed suit to keep Big Mac on the public financing dole. In doing so they have revealed their game plan. HAMSTRING HIM ANY WAY POSSIBLE!

I think we are now starting to see a pattern. Keep throwing you know what into the fan and see what sticks. Remember when ceiling fans first became popular? We were teens at the time. I’m wondering if you didn’t try what we tried at home – throwing stuff up into the fan. It was an experiment in physics, science, and the Three Stooges. My favorite items were stale rolls. They just shattered, and shattered my mother’s temper. My father liked throwing sticky things into it. We tried ice. My grandfather suggested we get something out of the cat box and let the you know what hit the fan. His idea was quickly vetoed by my grandmother who sometimes lacked a sense of humor.

I think you see my point. The Dems are doing the same thing with John McCain. Two weeks ago the Dems decided that McCain had an uncontrollable temper. Last week, while McCain was looking quite Presidential during the Iraq hearings. Raw Story broke that tacky piece about McCain trashing his wife. It went no where. The temper tantrums of the Dems were ignored. So, this week, during Tax Time, they are going to go after Big Mac on public financing.

How much longer are people going to put up with this? Are their tactics going to backfire? If Soros can make that $40 mil pledge good, then they're going to chuck out sev mil a week during the general election season to attack Big Mac. Will it work?

There’s another point to their attack. With luck they can get McCain off offensive and message and start making him defend himself. The problem is – been there and done that. They tried this a few weeks ago and it went no where. But – what the heck, if you keep rewording the lawsuit and keep judge shopping they might find one who will stop the campaign dead in its tracks.

The other point – get McCain into the headlines defensively and take some of the heat of Barack Obama’s latest hoof and mouth trauma. Remember, we are living in two different Americas – Democrat and Republican.

Then, there’s another something you just don’t hear spoken. Just how much money does Barack Obama actually have on hand? He’s spending like a drunken bi-polar sailor on a manic high. We know he took in about $40 mil in March, but he’s forking out something like $2.2 mil a day in Pennsylvania alone. That’s enough to eat up every cent of the March take. In March he was spending $1.5 mil a day. If this is true, in March alone, that’s $35 mil. If he did that in Dec, Jan, and Feb, then it makes one wonder just how much is in the bank right now. Is Obama refusing to do the old cash cake walk in Philadelphia a sign that maybe he doesn’t have as much as we think he does?

Is the refusal to take public financing just a smoke screen?

To date he’s raised something like $198,000,000. If he spent $45 mil in March and the same amounts in Feb, Jan, and Dec – then let’s say he’s spent a cool $160 mil already. That would leave him with about $40 mil or so cash on hand, and we’re not deducting for the $2.2 mil for April in Penn.

To date Hillary has taken in about $170 mil or so and she’s broke. If this is the case, then Barack Obama ain’t sitting pretty.

You know, for all that money he’s brought in, Barack Obama could be in serious financial trouble. Why else would Soros put the squeeze on the usual suspects to cough up about $40 mil to attack Big Mac? What if Obama has reached the apex of his money coming in and Big Mac has yet to begin to rake it in? NOTE: I’m using cash totals from Feb 29.

We hear that Hillary took in about $20 mil in Mar and Obama took in $40 mil in Mar. I figure Obama has that $40 mil or so on hand, and is spend it quickly. We basically know what Hillary has spent, so if it’s titfortat then Obama’s not much better off financially than Hillary. The beautiful irony is John McCain might have more money then they do.

So, sit back and look at these articles and links with an eye to the fact that Obama may not have as much money on hand as we think he does. If so, it changes the whole story.

Like Monk, I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. NOTE: When dealing with me and my dyslexia and numbers, well - deal with it.

Ruffini has pegged something that is bothering me.

“…The Democrats and the media will always try to psych us out by saying it’s not our time, that all the energy is on their side. (Look how they duped the smart Beltway money into thinking 2008 would be another wave, holding back Republican recruitment and triggering a flood of retirements.) It doesn’t matter how many polls say John McCain is winning in states like Pennsylvania and Oregon, just as the grassroots army the Bush campaign built in 2004 didn’t matter… until Election Day. Maybe we won’t win in absolute terms. But there is nobility in trying. In throwing the kitchen sink at the problem. In closing the gap as much as is humanly possible, so that those who come after can build it even better.

This is not a criticism of the team working on this. One need only look at their aggressive use of online advertising to gauge their technical proficiency. I’ve highlighted the smart and refreshing way they reach out to swing voters to tell the McCain story. The problem is that no one in the high command seriously believes that the online campaign can be as big and strategically important as Finance, or Political, or Communications. The McCain campaign needs to start by giving the eCampaign the same operational leeway in scheduling the candidate as the other divisions have — even if it’s just two minutes a day for an authentic McCain video blog that breaks news and creates value. They need to be given the authority to rewrite the rules, with real-time fundraising transparency that lays bare the urgency of the situation and gives the grassroots what they need to ride to the rescue. Grassroots empowerment must be made a central ethos of the campaign….”

Exactly!
The LA Times has more on the money problems. On the other hand, I am wondering if some of this ‘small donor’ cash cow that come sin for Barack Obama isn’t set up on credit card auto pay. If you examine his FEC reports, it is obvious he has people set up on auto-pay, month after month, for some small amounts.

I truly think conservatives are hurting the fund-raising effort. I think the hatred Rush Limbaugh has against John McCain is causing serious money problems with conservative donors.

Obama is spending something like 2.2 mil a day in Pennsylvania.
According to CQPolitics, Obama is once again lying about – well – anything. He’s not going to do public financing. He will simply lie about it and call John McCain and everyone supporting him a racist for trying to hold him to his word.

THE 40 MILLION DOLLAR HIT
David Brock and his sugar daddy, George Soros are planning a $40 million independent media barrage against John McCain. PoliBlog has more of what we are going to be up against. The Soros Smear will taint Obama.

PUBLIC FINANCING
Will he or won’t he?

“…Obama told the audience that his campaign has created "a parallel public financing system," in which thousands of small donors, rather than the big donors, influence the candidate. In effect, he is arguing that millions of dollars in small Internet donations are as clean as public funding. In practical terms, Obama would be better off turning down the public money. At his current pace, next month he will have outraised every other presidential candidate in history. "What's happened is that there's just way more money out there than, really, anyone expected," says Jonathan Bernstein, a political science professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio, who has followed the recent boom in small-donor political giving. He says that Internet fundraising in particular has changed the way candidates approach fundraising. Not only can the Internet generate large amounts of cash, he says, but also it's "not nearly as time-intensive as having to schmooze with the big-money people."…”

The DNC is going to ask a Federal Judge to force the FEC to investigate John McCain, yada yada yada….
The Hill We all know where Media Matters stands on the subject. WSJ on Obama’s lies.

“…Mr. Obama has also made much of his campaign's pledge not to accept money from political action committees, raising the majority of his funds from small private donations. PACs typically make up less than 1% of overall election donations to Presidential candidates, so that's no sacrifice. Industry PACs may not give directly to his campaign, but employees of industries may do so, and many of his contributors have come from executives and their spouses. For example, Mr. Obama leads all candidates in donations from the pharmaceutical industry and commercial banks, among other industries. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks fundraising in elections, Mr. Obama has received $528,765 from people in the pharmaceutical industry and $1,380,108 from commercial banks. He comes in second to Mrs. Clinton in donations from lawyers with $13,690,170, just over a million shy of her total. There is in fact a real parallel financing system already in place and ready to support Mr. Obama. It's called George Soros and so-called 527 groups such as the Democrat-supporting Fund for America or the newly named Progressive Media USA. Progressive Media recently announced plans for a $40 million, four-month campaign against Mr. McCain, and that's only one group in the game….”

Then from the WPost.

MICROTRENDS
SV sent this to me. It tells where the Clinton team when wrong, ignoring micro-trends, one of which was allowing Obama to gain the upper hand in online funding.

RUDY RUDY RUDY
According to the Politico, Big Mac is helping Rudy attack his campaign debt. Is this a sign of things to come – like my idea of a Dream Team?

If the Northeast keeps looking like Big Mac has a chance, could we see the Dream Team? Giuliani can help pull in NY, where Big Mac is now competitive. He could help in New Jersey, and even PA. If you look at the latest maps on Five Thirty-Eight, look at the map. There is a chance Rudy could help him paint the Northeast purple. Also, if those numbers are as close as they are polling, Giuliani will help take New Mexico. We may be puny, but those 4 little votes could make all the difference in the world.