John Edwards is now trouncing John McCain by NINE points, 47%-38%, and he's also annihilating Mitt Romney by TWENTY-SIX POINTS, 55%-29%, in the latest Rasmussen polls.
Those are 8-point increases over Edwards' leads against both McCain and Romney in February. Too bad Rasmussen didn't poll Edwards vs. Giuliani again -- if he also gained 8 points against Giuliani, he's now ahead in that race, too.
Edwards is soundly beating the two Republicans who are expected to raise the most money in the first quarter. Speaking of money, Edwards is closing in on 25,000 donors and $2.5 million on ActBlue. I'm going to help him reach that by tonight's deadline for first quarter donations, and I hope you will too.
UPDATE: We can donate to Edwards through ActBlue and let the campaign know it came from the Netroots here: Netroots for Edwards
John and Elizabeth have made it clear, in both words ("I don't share Gen. Pace's view") and actions (kiss off, Fox News) that they are engaged with the Netroots and they care about our views. They obviously GET IT -- the value of the Netroots in restoring the voice of the people to our government.
UPDATE II: We've passed 25,000 donors! Can we pass $2.5 million? You can let them know it was the Netroots that did it.
UPDATE III: (h/t to Phil) An e-mail sent out today from David Bonior, campaign manager for John Edwards for President:
I just came out of the conference room in our office, where our whole staff has joined the volunteers making calls to beat this midnight fundraising deadline. There's energy in the air -- we're getting close. I've been calling supporters from Michigan, my home state. A woman I spoke with last night put it very well (I'm paraphrasing here):
"All my life I've been hoping someone would just come out there and do something about what everyone can see needs to be fixed, things like, health care, poverty, global warming, all this stuff that's obvious but no one is doing anything about it. Now here's John Edwards, finally getting the nation to pay attention, finally saying it's time to do something! So yes, I'll donate, because I want the whole country to listen up, and this is my way of making that happen."
We all have different reasons we support this campaign. But whatever our different dreams for this country, we all face the same deadline at 11:59 PM tonight to make it happen. We're charging hard towards our new $3 million online goal, but we aren't there yet. If each us just put in a little bit more in the 7 hours we have left, I know we can make it.
There is no 'later' on this one. Tonight sets the course for the rest of the campaign, and this moment won't come again. Will you be the one who gets us across the finish line?
What's my personal reason? It's simple really. I was raised to believe in the fight for economic and social justice. And there is no better leader in that struggle today than John Edwards.
I'm sure you have your own reason. In fact, after you contribute, hit 'reply' to this email and send me a note about what did it for you.
I know thousands of you have already contributed, and you're why we're on the verge of success today. And if you haven't yet found the right time to give, well, your moment is here.
For all the million different reasons, I thank you.
David Bonior
Campaign Manager
John Edwards for President
P.S. - Remember, you have till 11:59 PM tonight in your local time zone to make your donation online and still beat the deadline.
UPDATE IV: $2.4 million at ActBlue as of 6:30 p.m. Central Time (and more than $3 million total online). We've still got several hours to see if we can hit $2.5 million just on ActBlue.
Netroots for Edwards is now the No. 2 page for total number of donors, second only to the main John Edwards for President page. Nice job!
UPDATE V: Over $2.5 million at 10 p.m. Central! Wow! As Jerome at MyDD says: Edwards is on fire!