During his presidency, Reagan was credited with spending so much on the military that the Soviets were forced to try to keep pace and thereby went bankrupt.
It seems that Obama has duplicated this feat against Sen. Clinton. He is spending her into the ground.
While you can (and others have) make the argument that Clinton's support has reached its ceiling while Obama has not yet reached his. But it is clear that Clinton has reached her money ceiling. Her big cash donors have given all they can for the primaries. They do not have a large number of untapped donors. They have almost no cash on hand and by some counts are in debt, even it is only to themselves. Obama has a huge number of small donors (me among them) who will give more if needed.
Now in Pennsylvania, Obama outspent Clinton 2 or 3 to 1, but he ends up with a larger margin in the money primary. As Clinton tries to continue to campaign, she must raise a great deal more money or she will basically be fighting with one arm behind her back. The only way she can get her voice heard in that case is to go negative ever more desperately. That generates free publicity and lots of chatter on the talk shows.
It is a sucker's game, since it turns voters off and will hurt the party (and her if she should chance to be the nominee) in the fall, but the lack of funds leave her little choice. If you're in the Super Bowl and down 14 in the fourth quarter, you don't quit. You go deep and go down fighting. But the proper analogy is NASCAR. Obama and Clinton may be neck and neck, but he is a lap ahead. No amount of back and forth jockeying is going to change that. Only a referee's call can change the results.
The money primary makes it harder for Clinton to catch up. It makes it harder for Clinton to woo the superdelegates. Like a QB throwing desperate passes, she just ends up further down. You don't want the record for most INTs in a game.
I am torn by this. I think that Clinton would be a mistake as president. I don't think that we should be talking about nuclear war with Iran. Yet I am not in favor of having a "money primary" decide our nominee or president. That seems like a Republican concept. My only comfort is that Obama isn't winning by getting millionaires behind him, he is doing it with lots of small donors. Like Lance Armstrong, he is using an easier gear but cranking it more often.
So I guess I am at peace with the money primary coming to the Democratic party.