I got this email today, as many of you surely did as well:
I'm the Chief Financial Officer for Barack Obama's campaign. I track the donations coming in and the expenses going out.
I asked for the opportunity to write to you directly so that I could try to explain what's happening right now.
This organization has thousands of employees and spends millions of dollars a day -- and at the moment we're doing it without a safety net.
Our spending plans have been stretched by John McCain's negative attacks and the overwhelming resources of the Republican National Committee.
As of October 15th, John McCain and the RNC together had nearly $20 million more in cash than the combined total of Obama for America and the DNC. And just this week, we're facing new and unexpected spending against us in Montana and West Virginia.
Your incredible generosity has gotten us this far. But right now we need your help more than ever to get this campaign across the finish line.
Please donate $100 or whatever you can afford right now:
How is this possible? Is it because the RNC is saving up for a bigger last minute spend? Is the DNC having a horrible fundraising month? It seems inconceivable to me considering how much money Obama started out this month with...anyone have any inside baseball insights as to what this means? Are progressives falling asleep in a complacent fog? I think I've given everything I can this elections cycle, but I may have to dig out some change from under the couch cushions or something if the Obama campaign is really at this big of a deficit. This seems to be where I'm to go:
https://donate.barackobama.com/...
Oh well, so much for dinner out this week!
UPDATE
Hmmm...was expressing genuine worry, not trolling...really! Trying to figure out how I can give more money. Here, by the way is the text that's at the link I give above:
As of October 15th, John McCain and the RNC had $20 million more in cash than this campaign and the DNC.
We need to close that gap.
We can't underestimate our opponents' strength and what they're willing to do in the last few days of this election -- too much is at stake.
Make a donation now to close the gap before it's too late.
Update 2
From the MemphisD in the comments:
...has Obama with $66 million in cash on hand as of October 15 and McCain with $67 million.
Democratic Party has $91 million. Republican party has $121 million.
DNC has $11 million. RNC has $60 million.
DSC has $8 million. RSC has $17 million.
Lord have mercy. We've already outspent them 2-1 and we've gotta have more. I just have to wonder where some of this money has gone.
Wish I could give, but I'm tapped out.
Source: OpenSecrets.org