How much do you want for your vote?

[Gob]

Romney and Republicans raise $100m in June


Mitt Romney and the Republicans raised a combined $100m (£64m) in June, laying down the gauntlet to an Obama campaign that is scrambling to keep pace.

The figure excludes the millions raised by groups that support the Republican presidential candidate.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have not yet released their fundraising results for June.

Mr Obama spent the day in Ohio as he launched the first bus tour of his campaign for re-election in November.

In May, the Romney campaign out-fundraised its rival, attracting $77m against the Obama team's $60m.

Mr Obama has been warning supporters that he is in danger of becoming the first sitting president in history to be outspent by his opponent.

According to Mr Romney's campaign aides, much of the money raised in June came from new donors, Politico reported.

Several states, including the key battlegrounds of Colorado, Michigan and Ohio, exceeded their fundraising goals, they added.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama pitched a positive message on Ohio's economic recovery and the comeback of the state's car industry.

Ohio's unemployment rate of 7.3% compares with a national average of 8.2%.

Ohio is a key battleground in presidential elections - no Republican has ever won the White House without capturing it.

A Quinnipiac University poll of Ohio voters last week had Mr Obama leading his rival by 47% to 38% in the state. Earlier, the Obama campaign had run a barrage of attacks on Mr Romney's business record.

"I'm betting you're not going to lose interest," Mr Obama told voters in Maumee, Ohio. "I'm betting you're not going to lose heart. I still believe in you, I'm betting on you."

The president also touched on his landmark healthcare reform act, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last week.

"It is going to make the vast majority of Americans more secure," he told supporters. Mr Romney has pledged to repeal the law if he wins office.

On Friday, Mr Obama will finish his bus tour with appearances in Poland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said the president had "no new answers" for the economy.

Despite its fundraising bonanza, correspondents say the Romney campaign has struggled recently to gain the initiative.

His team was seen as having been put on the back foot by the president's order last month halting deportations for children of illegal immigrants.

The Romney camp also delivered conflicting responses to Supreme Court ruling last week on healthcare.

And there were negative headlines this week over a Vanity Fair investigation reporting that much of Mr Romney's personal fortune was hidden in a network of opaque offshore investment havens.

Conservative concerns over the former private equity chief's campaign were vented in an an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

It accused Mr Romney's staff of "slowly squandering an historic opportunity". The newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who called for a Romney campaign shake-up, in a tweet earlier this week.

Meanwhile, pictures of Mr Romney on holiday with his family this week in New Hampshire prompted conservative radio talk host Laura Ingraham to tell listeners: "There's no week to spare, we have a country to save."

With the economy such a major issue in the coming election, both campaigns will be eagerly awaiting figures due on Friday showing if there was any rise in hiring by US employers during June

[rubato]

This is just depressing.

yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

Rupert Murdoch

Again, Australia has a lot to answer for. If this isn't a casus belli, I don't know what is.

[dgs49]

The end is coming.

Why do people fret about this? Even if Barry is raising a little bit less money, his supporters are still able blanket the airwaves with grotesque lies about Bane Capital. Isn't that sufficient?

My sainted Father-in-Law used to belong to a construction laborers' union. When they had union elections he would sometimes be given a cash gift by a candidate before casting his ballot. Usually it was ten bucks, which was fairly significant at the time. He invariably voted for someone else, just because of the bribe.

You can't directly bribe someone to vote your way.

The bigger concern, for anyone who is a tax-paying adult, is when politicians bribe voters with benefits and perq's paid for out of taxpayer funds. How can you look at the GM bailout as anything other than a devil's bargain between the UAW (and its sister unions) and the Democrats? Did they buy those future votes?

How can you NOT view the thousands of sweet-heart government employee contracts around the country (90% of which were negotiated by Democrat politicians and their operatives) as bribes for future votes?

How can you NOT view the shenanigans of today's NLRB as an in-kind bribe to organized labor?

Now can you NOT view Barry's bullshit with refusing to enforce DOMA and the immigration laws as bribes to selected constituencies, using the power of the Executive?

And you pretend to be disturbed because Romney is getting a few shekels more in political contributions.

Get real.

[Scooter]

Barry's bullshit with refusing to enforce DOMA

You've told this lie before.

Show me where same-sex marriages are being recognized for tax purposes, or under Social Security, or for immigration, or for any other federal purposes, and you can claim that DOMA is not being enforced.

No longer forcing government lawyers to breach their professional ethics by peddling knowingly false arguments in order to defend an unconstitutional piece of garbage has nothing to do with "enforcement".

[Lord Jim]

For many months, Obama was raising 60, 70 , 80 million dollars a month while GOP donors were sitting on their hands, and a big month for Romney was 20 million....

Where was the hand-wringing about money then? (For some reason the author of that article chose to only include the past two months in his piece....Gee whiz, I wonder why that is?)

In 2008, Obama and his allied groups out spent the McCain side by 700 million to 200 million....

Don't recall seeing much around here about the evils of big time campaign spending then....

The fact of the matter is that both sides will have plenty of money to get out their message and make their case; for Obama to be poor-mouthing, (as I saw him doing in a speech earlier this week) is disingenuous in the extreme.

[Scooter]

I don't see anything in there decrying the evils of big time campaign fundraising. I see an article that says Romney is doing better at fundraising than Obama, and Obama telling his supporters they need to step up to the plate.

[Jarlaxle]

For many months, Obama was raising 60, 70 , 80 million dollars a month while GOP donors were sitting on their hands, and a big month for Romney was 20 million....

Where was the hand-wringing about money then? (For some reason the author of that article chose to only include the past two months in his piece....Gee whiz, I wonder why that is?)

In 2008, Obama and his allied groups out spent the McCain side by 700 million to 200 million....

Don't recall seeing much around here about the evils of big time campaign spending then....

The fact of the matter is that both sides will have plenty of money to get out their message and make their case; for Obama to be poor-mouthing, (as I saw him doing in a speech earlier this week) is disingenuous in the extreme.

I'm ALREADY getting an avalanche of junk mail from my union soliciting donations for Obama. ABout par...the money they squeeze me for every month isn't enough, they need more.

I'm considering pasting the next one's post-paid envelope on a box, putting something heavy in said box (one of the old cast-iron cylinder heads from my uncle's F-250, perhaps), mailing it, and sticking them with the postage.

[Lord Jim]

You don't want to do that Jarl.....

The postage cost for the solicitations comes out of your dues....

[oldr_n_wsr]

While I have not had any requests for donations to any party, I have a few pollster(?) calls about who(m?) I might vote for. I am guessing that me being an independent they want to know where they stand with me/us.

[Jarlaxle]

You don't want to do that Jarl.....

The postage cost for the solicitations comes out of your dues....

It's a better use for my dues than most of the crap they are spending the money on!

[Gob]

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign increased its fundraising lead over President Barack Obama in June, official figures show.

Mr Romney and the Republicans raised $106m (£68m), $35m more than Mr Obama and the Democrats, who raised $71m.

Both camps raised more than in May, when the Romney bid took in $77m and the Obama camp $60m.

The totals exclude millions raised by independent groups that support each candidate.

The Obama campaign released its June numbers in an email to donors.

"If we lose this election, it will be because we didn't close the gap enough when we had the chance," the email says, issuing another call for donations.

Mr Obama's campaign has been regularly warning supporters that he is in danger of becoming the first sitting president in history to be outspent by his opponent.

[rubato]

The Republicans are paying us several thousand dollars a year in unjustified tax breaks for our votes.

It isn't working.

yrs,
rubato