Money, It's a Hit

The primary battle has turned into the war for cold, hard cash. Just 48 hours after Hillary Clinton admitted she was making a personal loan to her campaign, the drive for campaign dollars has accelerated at an astonishing rate. Hillary Clinton made a donation plea. Barack Obama supporters countered. The end result is a big pile of cash for both.

Just a short while ago, Hillary's campaign proclaimed that she has raised $6 million in the last 48 hours. Not to be outdone, the Obama camp has raised a whopping $7.2 million in 48 hours. Truly amazing.

To put that in perspective, by the end of January, the media was touting the theme "the Mac is back" because John McCain raised $7 million total during the month of January. Before the early primaries and caucuses, it took McCain 3 months to raise $7 million. There is no doubt he'll see a boost now that it's clear he will be the nominee. But, will McCain and the RNC be able to match the growing number of online contributors that the Democratic party has enlisted? Not likely. The Republican donors just don't have the stomach. The fact that their wallets are a little lighter this election season isn't going to encourage them to get out that credit card and click "donate" to a luke-warm candidate and a party in crisis.  

Where are the Democratic contributions coming from? Well, John Kerry and MoveOn.org certainly get credit for sharing their endorsements, and more importantly for utilizing their email lists as a fundraising tool for Obama. Between Kerry's email database of 2004 contributors and MoveOn.org's membership list, Obama has seen a financial windfall from online contributors.

Hillary seems to have tapped into her own online well. According to her campaign, they've gained 35,000 new online donors since midnight on Tuesday. In addition, they've started to press current donors that have the potential to donate more.  

No matter which candidate you are supporting (and I am clearly against that candidate), the fact remains that money is flowing like lava to Democrats, not the Republicans. Between the two Democratic camps, they have now raised approximately $15 million dollars online since midnight on Tuesday. With enthusiasm like that, it's a good time to be a Democrat.  Especially when you consider that all of this happens on the same day when the candidate preferred by big money Republicans called it quits. Good times, indeed.

Meanwhile, before I could even hit "publish" on this story, both camps have reported updated numbers. Hillary's camp says they are headed toward $7 million, and Barack's camp reported $7.5 million and counting.

Let the good times roll!