Obama's fundraising edge over McCain is according to beltway wisdom offset by the RNC's money advantage over the DNC's. The most recent figures show the RNC has $68 million compared to only $4 million for the DNC.
The problem is, there is almost no way the RNC can spend this money on TV ads effectively.
Any ad will end with "this ad paid for by the Republican National Committee." But swing voters and independents hate the national republican party. They will distrust anything run under its name.
The most recent poll on the popularity of the GOP is from an LAT/Bloomberg poll on June 19 to 23, and asked "Do you have a positive or negative feeling about the Republican Party?"
By a 53% to 29% margin, the answer was negative.
Likewise, pro-McCain ads by the RNC will hurt his campaign's efforts to differentiate himself from Bush and other Republicans.
Here's an example:
It is not a very good ad anyway. But the ending just tells the viewer: "McCain and the Republicans have the same position on the environment."
At best this ad will do nothing for McCain, at worst it further link him with the GOP and do him harm. If McCain is so different from the generic Republicans, why is the RNC running so many ads in support of him?
Amusingly, the RNC may be hurting its candidates with ads like these that praise McCain for breaking with his party. Ken Mehlman's well-oiled 2004 campaign machine is dead.