$68 million dollars is a lot of money but in political terms, and when compared to previous hauls, it’s not particularly impressive. $68 million is what President Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised in the fourth quarter of 2011 – the lowest total for any quarter of the year.
President Obama raised $42 million for his campaign while the DNC raised the remaining $24 million – they can fundraise together and on each other’s behalf, so their total is often lumped together. The haul is one of the lower averages – in the first quarter alone, the president raised nearly $49 million for just his campaign.
President Obama has been criticized for “front loading” his fundraising schedule, going after major donors and holding significant fundraisers early in his campaign season. CBS’ Mark Knoller noted that as early as July the president had attended 60 fundraisers (averaging one every three days).
On Wednesday night, the president attended several fundraising events in Chicago, but it will be an uphill battle to get to the much ballyhooed “billion dollar” campaign that the Obama White House had claimed they would mount in 2012. In 2008, then-Sen. Obama raised $745 billion for his election effort.
At this rate, Obama’s reelection team would need to raise nearly $200 million per quarter to get to $1 billion by November. When asked about the lackluster total, Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina said that “the billion-dollar number is completely untrue.”
Wonder what I was reading that led me to believe that was the Obama teams goal? Once again, the White House reaches for the “who should you believe; me or your lyin’ eyes” argument. It must sting when you’re underperforming George W. Bush’s fundraising pace at this point in his presidency – in the fourth quarter of 2003, Bush had raised $47.5 million for his reelection effort.
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