McCain camp flashing the greenbacks

Nothing yet from Obama's campaign on their June haul (they've denied a WSJ report that they had come up short in June), but the Republicans are pretending to be confident.

Rick Davis, the titular head of the McCain campaign, said on a conference call with reporters that the campaign and the RNC combined have just less than $95 million cash on hand at the end of June, and that they have been outspending Obama in advertising by almost a 3-to-1 margin since April.

"I think Obama probably made a strategic mistake by not matching our buy in June," Davis said.

Republicans are so cute when they concern troll.

At the end of May, McCain had $36 million cash on hand, while the RNC had about $54 million. That's roughly $90 million. Are Republicans now saying that they only added $5 million to their bottom line in June? If so, that's not so impressive. They are only claiming $10 million in ad spending the last two months after all, so that means that they've blown through most of the $22 million he raised in June plus whatever the RNC added to the haul (which is likely to be significant).

As for that $10 million, it may sounds scary, but again, the reality is much less so as Bowers explains.

[A]s of May 31st, Obama had already spent just over $107 million on paid media during this campaign, while McCain had only spent just over $18 million. In other words, Obama has already invested $89 million more in paid media to define his image than John McCain. It is hard to imagine that McCain, even with RNC assistance, will ever make up such a large gap.

Finally, let's see what that $10 million has bought McCain. The national polls:

Um, that's not looking like a great return on that $10 million investment. But what about the key swing states?

Pennsylvania:

Ohio:

Michigan:

Wisconsin:

Ouch all around. It's no better for McCain in Minnesota, or North Carolina, or Missouri, or New Mexico, or New Hampshire, or Virginia, or Oregon, or Washington, or even Florida.

In fact, there isn't a single battleground state in which McCain's numbers are on the upswing. Not a one. Go down the list of states at Pollster.com and see for yourself. McCain's inability to hold support is quite dramatic. Heck, states like Montana, Alaska, Indiana, and North Dakota are seemingly in play.

So that $10 million -- which McCain's camp brags is three times what Obama has spent -- has gotten them absolutely nothing. Zero. Nil. Nada. In fact, these poll numbers lend support to Bowers' theory -- Obama has done an effective job, thanks to his 50-state+ primary battle, of getting the word out about who he is and what he stands for. McCain, not so much. And as hard as his campaign tries to show that John McCain over and over again in their saturation media buys, fact is, the American public is tuning him out.

Hopefully, that massive RNC war chest remains committed to McCain's hapless venture, because it could do far more damage if it was redirected to the battle for Congress.