Enthusiasm gap? What enthusiasm gap?
President Obama’s campaign and Democratic allies raised a record $181 million in September, his campaign manager said today….The Obama campaign manager said the average donation was $53, with 98% of the contributions at $250 or less.
In the end, I wonder if the Republican focus on Super PACs will end up hurting them? Team Blue might be raising a bit less money overall than Team Red, but the Obama campaign is raising more than the Romney campaign. If you’re Karl Rove, I suppose you might argue that Super PACs have more freedom to launch nasty (but effective) attack ads than the campaigns themselves, so it’s a good thing that a big chunk of conservative money is going to Crossroads GPS and their ilk. If you’re Jim Messina, you’ll probably argue that, in the end, it’s better to have most of your money under central control, where you can use it precisely the way you need to.
I have no idea which is the better argument. Either way, though, Obama certainly doesn’t seem to be having any big problem raising money from the folks who supported him in 2008. I continue to think that Mitt Romney lost a real chance to eat into that support when he decided last spring that he had to continue placating the tea partiers instead of immediately moving to the center.
