Last Monday's New Hampshire Debate

[Gob]

Mitt Romney has got some vote buying power now!

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's bid for the 2012 Republican nomination raised $18.25m (£11.4m) in the second quarter of 2011, his campaign said.

The haul appears to cement the former Massachusetts governor's status as the early frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination, analysts say.

His three nearest rivals in the Republican effort to unseat President Barack Obama each raised about $4m.

Mr Romney's take was $3m less than the same period in 2007, when he also ran.

The final deadline for submitting fundraising totals for the period running from 1 April to 30 June is 15 July.

But Mr Romney's campaign released its unofficial totals on Wednesday.

"Voters are responding to Mitt Romney's message that President Obama's policies have failed and that we need new leadership in Washington," the campaign's national finance chairman Spencer Zwick said in a statement.

"Our fundraising for the second quarter represents the strong support Mitt Romney has across the country."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14050745

[Gob]

Newt's skint!

ATLANTA (AP) -- Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign is more than $1 million in debt, according to his campaign disclosure provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

The former House speaker's campaign raised $2.1 million since he got into the race earlier this year. But he spent $1.8 million.

Gingrich said he has $322,222 cash on hand.

Gingrich, however, listed $1.03 million in debt, almost half of that for private air travel. The Republican owes $451,946 to Washington, D.C.-based Moby Dick Airways and more than $100,000 for legal fees.

Facing a cash shortfall, Gingrich has in recent months has scaled back his spending, flying commercial airlines rather than corporate jets.

His campaign said he had received contributions from 20,217 donors, with 17,959 writing checks for $100 or less.

One of his campaign's creditors is Gingrich himself. The campaign owes him $47,005 for its use of mailing lists owned by the former Georgia congressman.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 5-14-18-20

He's never going to be able to buy enough votes.

[rubato]

Newt, like his party, is morally and intellectually bankrupt.

Every economic prediction he made (or anyone else in his party) was 180 degrees opposite of what actually happened.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Actually, that 18 mil was a major disappointment...

The word had been that he was going to report 40 mil....

But here's the guy who really ain't hurtin' for bucks:

Obama Fundraising For 2012 Campaign, DNC Breaks Record

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama collected $86 million combined for his re-election campaign and the Democratic party during the past three months, giving him a large fundraising advantage over the Republican field seeking to challenge him in 2012.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a video posted early Wednesday that it raised more than $47 million and the Democratic National Committee brought in more than $38 million through the end of June, building a foundation for advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts in next year's election. Obama's team had set a public goal of $60 million combined.

As expected, the fundraising totals outpace Republicans, who have collectively raised about $35 million so far, although some candidates have yet to release their results. At the same time in 2007, 10 GOP presidential hopefuls had raised more than $118 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the GOP field in fundraising, pulling in more than $18 million during the past three months. An independent fundraising group supporting Romney's presidential bid has raised $12 million this year.

Following Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty collected $4.2 million and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman brought in $4.1 million, with about half coming from his personal wealth. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a tea party favorite, has not yet released her fundraising totals.

Obama's advisers have told donors privately they hope to match or exceed the $750 million they raised in 2008, anticipating a stiff challenge from Republicans amid rocky economic conditions. Obama has acknowledged he will need to re-energize supporters who were inspired by his message of hope and change three years ago but may be discouraged by the economy and the pace of change.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/1 ... 96813.html

At the moment there's a lot of GOP money sitting on the sidelines...people who aren't crazy about Romney, but don't see any of the other current candidates as a viable alternative...

If by the end of the summer no one viable gets in, (particularly Rick Perry) you'll start to see a lot more money flowing to Romney.

[rubato]

Obama is getting money from people like myself, who have never joined a political party, but who have seen the pure horror of Republican 'leadership' and how we will surely die as a country if they get back in power for any length of time. How much worse can they do? The WORST DISASTER IN 80 YEARS! AND THEY LEARNED NOTHING FROM IT!

Don't you care about that?


yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

At the moment there's a lot of GOP money sitting on the sidelines...people who aren't crazy about Romney, but don't see any of the other current candidates as a viable alternative...

Was there really that much excitement about any of the candidates last time around, when Republicans had raised over three times as much money by this point?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's a LOT more Republican money to be had, but solely by comparison to the last election, those numbers surprise me, considering how mobilized Republicans seem to be to get rid of the Great Communistic Satan.