The Republicans have big problems.
Romney, a multimillionaire, has now lent his campaign a total of about $9 million. Without the loans from his personal fortune, Romney would have only about $3 million in the bank to spend this year.
John McCain just fired 50 staffers and has just $2 million on hand.
Guiliani raised $15 million this quarter and has $15 million on hand.
By contrast:
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s 258,000 contributors since January exceed the combined number of donors of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), according to estimates provided by the campaigns…
…During the quarter, Obama (Ill.) raised $32.5 million, $31 million of which can be used in the primaries. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) raised $21 million for the primaries and a total of about $27 million in the same period.
The Republicans can’t compete. They can’t even finance their campaigns. The party of Wall Street and the defense contractor industry can’t even keep their lights on during a time of strong markets and unending war. What’s going on?
To be honest, I’m not sure what’s going on. George W. Bush had little difficulty raising buckets of cash in 2000. Something in their party mechanism has simply broken. Maybe the problem is that the administration has no heir apparent. It’s obvious that the Republicans are the underdogs in the ’08 election, and that’s not helpful. But this disparity is startling.
