First! (I think)

Sorry, but does the total really suggest "that McCain's gains, and the choice of Sarah Palin, helped galvanize and expand Obama's donor base"?

She was chosen on the 29th of August; the reporting covers only 3 days of her selection as VP. These were also when everyone was just really confused by the choice, most people weren't paying that much attention (on the weekend, although it was the weekend sandwiched by the DNC and RNC), and she hadn't started lying out of her ass, scaring Democrats and independents, and attacking community service yet.

If I'm reading this right, this total is the baseline before any Palin galvanization, including the haul Obama got from the DNC.

Clearly a sign of desperation from a flagging Obama campaign!

I would hope the Obama campaign will take that $66 million and destroy McCain before October 31.

My guess is that they waiting until after the first debate (topic: foreign policy) to saturate the airwaves on issues of housing and health care. That's when most of the undecideds will begin engaging the election.

Well, good for him, he needs that money in those red states for the 50 state strategy.

And again the "clumsy" media department of Obama and the strategists Plouffe and Axelrod, called out of their water with a national campaign several times in the last two weeks, show how it is done to lower expections only to shatter even the highest ones. Supplying the NYT with that "lagging fundraising" stuff while having raised more than anyone ever before was really, really cleverly done.

I see from Josh's post on the homepage that Palin is continuing to tell the lie about the bridge (and also, from the link, the campaign is continuing to lie about crowd size).

As pleased as I am that Josh pointed out that the earmark was killed in 2005, while Palin was a private citizen and before she even ran for governor, I repeat again: Josh, please post to the homepage the question that needs to be asked to shut down this horseshit once and for all. Influential media types - the types who might actually get to talk directly to Palin or the campaign - read the homepage. Obviously they need some pointers on the best way to pose a question about this serial lie. That question, once again is (and I've included your information from your update last night):

How, exactly, did you communicate to Congress your opposition to the bridge? Did you write a memo? A letter? Make phone calls? Hold press conferences? How, exactly, did you in 2005 - the year the earmark was killed - before you were even running for governor, as a private citizen hockey mom from Wasilla Alaska, let Congress know that you didn't want that bridge? And what evidence do you have that Congress heard you over the thousands of communications they get from private citizens each month?

I'm so sick of this shit. Make this bitch put up or shut up. She's a lying sack of shit, and she's only getting away with it because no one will ask the very simple question that will allow no outs.

As scary as the NYTimes (and WaPo) profile of Palin is, this one is scarier.

Not only does Palin exhibit the worst traits of George Bush; she's also in training to be the next Cheney.

I'm encouraged that Obama will have the resources to remain competitive, because he'll need all he can get. I urge everyone who's not already doing so to budget whatever you can a week to keep the donations flowing.

The neocons who're now running McCain-Palin (it's really Palin-and-that-figurehead), are ginning up the culture wars like always. The "God, guns and gays" demographic is large and utterly impervious to any counter messages of hope and change, because they've been conditioned to see those as code for "liberal perverts want to ruin the America I love".

My main concern remains the influence of Obama's race in this whole thing, and it's a factor it too many minds, still. If you listen to the pollsters who probe the undecideds' reasons for still being undecided, it's not hard to hear a considerable amount of white fear. Fear of angry blacks being given power to exact revenge for a long history of injustice (which is ridiculous on its face, but I've heard older relatives and acquaintances say it nonetheless.) Fear of the demographic changes coming that will mean that this country won't be a white majority country in a few decades. These are the sources of much angst and fear and anger that Rove and his henchmen (and Nixon before them) have tapped into so effectively for decades.

This is why we can't be distracted and bamboozled into fighting the culture wars again, because that's fighting on the enemy's chosen ground.

Besides, that is phony ground, and the old tactics and arguments seem ever more extreme and obvious. People who try to survive, to thrive and raise healthy and educated children have more in common than that gives them credit for. But fear is in everyone, and Palin's choice was incredibly shrewd for how well her hard-Right, retro world view engergizes those who, like her, believe that the world can be divided into those right-thinking, Bible-believing, "traditional" American white people, and everyone else.

But like Frank Rich says this morning, she and Rove are not really new. They are merely exhuming a reactionary strain in American life that was so thoroughly discredited by a combination of the Great Depression and Joe McCarthy.

Today's practicioners of small-minded bigotry and rabid authoritarianism are smoother, more steeped in modern marketing and PR tactics, perhaps, but if anything, are more ruthless and lit with the fires of zealotry than those old boys were.

She's scary. Palin. But I'm seeing her as the leading edge of the wedge. McCain is nothing but a figure-head, a tool of the Old Order, meant to lend his war-hero image to the Restoration of a coalition of people and corporations who oppose most of the basic tenets of democracy, and who, if give power one more time, will surely seek to cement their power in ways that will be difficult to dislodge without violence and much suffering.

The Obama camp needs new ads hitting McCain on the economy.

It should be economy, economy, economy in all the ads.

Woooo Hoooooooooooooo!!!

I've been waiting to hear this.

We're rocking and rolling - quit worrying!

But do they have the guts? Not so far. Let's hope.

Fine - worry yourself into a lot of wrinkles and an early grave. I think you're wack, frankly.

Money speaks for itself,
I ain't gotta say shit.

Bun B.

I think fund raising is the best indicator of where we are. I think polls are bullshit. Money is real - this is real. This is support.

I've never given a dime to any political campaign. But I've donated bags of money to Obama. To me, this is the most important election of my lifetime, and I am determined to do whatever I can to help get Barack Obama elected. Obama's financial advantage will be an enormous factor in this race, and I plan to give much more money to the campaign in the coming weeks.

I'm constantly reminding everyone I know how important this is. My parents told me recently that they'd decided they had given as much as they were going to give this election season. I told them, "Come ON! We're in the home stretch. Now is exactly the wrong time to back off. We can BUY this election! We can beat the Republicans by swamping them financially. Cut back on Don Pablo's one night a month and give the money to Obama or the DNC." So they're donating again. It's worth it. Whatever we spend now is an investment in our futures. A few hundred bucks (or more) now could literally save you thousands of dollars over the coming years. Think about it. Donating to Obama is money well spent.

Most of the people who read this blog don't need the pep rally, obviously. But for anyone who does, please--donate. Five bucks if that's all you can afford. But donate. Let's buy ourselves an election.

I think Palin gave the wingnuts and excuse, not a reason, to support the ticket.

They will never forgive the Maverick Johnny for openly criticizing their neoconisms, but they would die beofre they would support a Democrat (so much for "country first"...) so they were just looking for an excuse to support McCain and Palin gave them that excuse.

Again, how typically hypocritical of them all; trash Obama for "celebrity" popularity and call him a messianic wannabe, but the moment Palin slithered onto the scene, they held her up like some female messiah, come down from the north country to save their wingnut delusions from the obscurity that The Truth tends to eventually impose on all deluded ideologues.

Great. Where's it going? We need lots more hard-hitting ads, running in lots of battleground states. Otherwise, what the hell good is this massive warchest?

I said this a few days ago but I'll say it again:

Stepping back from my periodic hysteria over how the campaign's going, it's looking more and more to me like Obama is playing it like a master. Now, I know a lot of us are bemoaning that Obama hasn't been hitting McCain harder with negative ads. But look at it this way: last week the Obama campaign signalled to the 527s that they are welcome to open fire. Up until this point, thanks to Obama telling them to step off back in June, the liberal 527s have been quiet. This has had two effects: 1) because there hasn't been any activity from the liberal 527s, the conservative 527s have remained relatively quiet. 2) because the conservative 527s have remained relatively quiet, it has fallen on John McCain to sling the shit himself. Essentially, what this means is that McCain has been burning through his media budget destroying his own biggest positives - his alleged integrity and honor - with sleazy, dishonest attack ads. He's not put any time into defining what a president John McCain thinks is important, what he would actually do as president, etc etc. And it's too late for him to do it now - that ship sailed for good during the Republican convention, which was dedicated to more of the same. At the same time, McCain's transparent dishonesty is starting to turn his "base" - the media - against him. He's no longer the "straight talker" open to talking to the media - that got cut off a month ago, right about when he really started to wallow in the shit.

So here we are, 6 or 7 weeks out from the election, and it's too late for McCain to pivot back to the themes of "honor and integrity", because his base no longer has his back. He's stuck with having to play the game the way he's been playing it for the past several months. Except now, he'll be throwing his shit against the veritable shit tsunami that's about to crash all over him from the liberal 527s. It's not going to be pretty. But I fully expect to see it, because the lib 527s have been sitting on the sidelines and keeping their powder dry for the past 3 months, and during that time, McCain has been creating numerous points of attack. Last week was Obama's Mr. Burns moment, when he turned to the liberal 527s and said, "Smithers, release the hounds." And now, the ripping of flesh is about to commence.

I don't expect for the Obama campaign itself to run ads that are bitingly negative. Then again, they won't have to. The 527s will take care of that. Obama has managed to remain above the sleaze thus far; he's just stood back and watched as McCain shit down his own leg. Has it cost him a few points in the polls? Yes, but that's reversible with the 527s doing the pushback. By the time election day rolls around, we'll have two candidates who have been smeared, but only one of them who has shit all over his own hands, while the other one will be the only one of the two who has offered up any idea to voters about what he will actually do if elected.

Next week will tell all. Already we've seen a couple of hard-hitting 527 ads surface - one from Planned Parenthood and one from a wildlife gorup on aerial hunting of wolves. I expect that these are just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Fear not, children, this game is not played out yet.

Given these fundraising totals, how in the HELL can you account for the article in the Times a week or so ago that said there was anxiety among Dems and people in the Obama camp that he was way behind his projected totals, and that he might have erred by opting out of public financing? Where do stories like this come from?

The Republican Party and McCain have lost the Mandate of Heaven (Confucian image)in terms of any governance for the foreseeable future. It's just gone.

The Democrats and Senator Obama know that, and are responding accordingly, and when the general public gets that 'Aha' moment the walls will come tumbling down. The intuition is out there, it just needs nurturing to fully express itself.

I would add that the Unions have a month and half to work with their people in the swing states. I doubt that McCain can expect to pick any new labor democrats, but can expect to have those in his camp now to be whittled away.

OT - but what a shock - my god, David Foster Wallace killed himself.

That gives me cold chills - I envied his talent and I hate envy, it's ugly, but Infinite Jest was the kind of book that makes me think - O god, this is literature - this is writing.

And it wasn't enough to overcome whatever his demons were.

What a loss.

I have a question (anyone?) about the assertion that Obama is on track to raise $300 for the GE, namely, how is that possible?

I assume, to start with, that by GE we really mean the post-convention period and not the period beginning, say, in early June when Obama became the presumptive nominee.

On this assumption (and assuming also that the $66m haul in August is money now on hand) Obama must raise $244m in a little over two months. That's about $122m a month. That doesn't sound on track to me.

But is the $66m raised in Aug. actually money on hand, or was most of it already spent before the convention? If the latter, then we're talking more like $150m a month that Obama has to raise to achieve the $300m goal. Again, that doesn't sound on track.

But let's assume that when we talk about $300m for the GE, we're really talking about money raised since June 1, a total of about $120m. That still leaves $180 to go or $90m a month over the next two months. Again, not on track?

What am I missing in all this? Somebody HELP!

And forget the comedy, Oilbama. You are not naturally funny and you do not speak “street.” You speak like a egomaniacal professor. And you do not know how to set up a joke. That “lipstick on a pig” line clearly either backfired, or you are as big a Sexist Jerk as everyone thinks you are. If you had said, “As John McCain said about Hillary Clinton’s health care … lipstick on a pig is still a pig,” at least you would have had a frame of reference to fall back on. You didn’t, you left yourself left wide open and you got nailed. Now everything you say will be double-examined for sexism., as it should be after the dispicable Racist and Sexist campaign you ran against the Clintons. Oilbama voted for the Bush Cheney Energy Bill which contained 6 Billion in givaways top Big Oil proving Oilbama who loves Big Oil as much as Bush and Cheney who represents more of the same. Thank God people are seeing this scumbag Oilbama and his scumbag Oilbamabots for what they truly are.

And forget the comedy, Oilbama. You are not naturally funny and you do not speak “street.”

I suppose you do speak" street" and count Jay Z and Ludacris among your friends and admirers -

You're just an envy-hiding snake. Guess what? I just spoke "street." Straight from Nas.

Do you who that is? Nas? Tell me, Dimwit.

I bet that the Media will report this toda or in the next few days:

Obama does poorly in terms of fund raising. He is way under the 100 Millions per month...

It is now obvious that the democratic is not unified, and that the Clintons hillraisers have not joined the Obama bandwagon...

We now belivieve that Obama is privately regretting not to have used the same strategy as McWar....

After not selecting Clinton has his VP, it is now obvious that Senator Obama has shown poor judgement.

-------------------------------------------------

I will give another $200 this month to the Obama campaing

Obama 08/12

One Stop Shop for Vetting Lady mcLiar:

http://dailysource.org/palin#toc

Amazing list of all topics and issues with videos and links related to each.

Bookmark it! Use it!

Donation for your race? No way, just give it up. Wake up America, please open your eyes and read the POLLS

ROFLMAO!

Things couldn't be going better for Obama, based on the number of concern trolls here today.

to quote Lil Wayne - "B'lieve that"

Oh, common, WAKE UP AMERICA, why keep talk about how much money Obama got from fund rasing? Just read the Polls.
The Polls implies that the more money he recieves, the less votes he gets.
Ha ha, I bet people are giving him money because they feel sorry for him.

i think you're right. if you haven't already, read mendell's biography of obama. he treats a decent length axelrod's and gibbs's theory -- wait, wait, wait, flood them.

i don't think they can wait much longer -- this is much different than the dem primary for the US senate seat, but so far, everything seems to be in line with the axelrod/gibbs strategy.

i'm no expert (and certainly, i've been given over to panic lately), but i would think that the first debate will be the trigger. you'll see the airwaves -- TV and radio -- absolutely FLOODED, surrogates will start going full-bore, and obama and biden will up their rhetoric exponentially.

that's just my guess based on reading mendell's book, though. i'm FOR SURE no expert, and barely even a political novice. so i guess i should take myself with a whole shaker-full of grains of salt.

All you Obama supporters should go to the following site to see who his and your friends are. Check out his sypporters are. !!!www.theobamafile.com !!!!I would like to know who vetted Obama ????? You really need to check this out to see your fine prospect. He will destroy the USA from within... Clinton was the one that could've beaten McCain. Now it will be McCain/Palin in 08

Take nothing for granted. Give what you can as often as you can. Make phone calls. Knock on doors. Make sure every kid you know is registered properly!

20 days to register!

Just to shed a little light on the fundraising picture and what it all means:

Obama's Fundraising Machine Still Rolling as Campaign Stays Coy

"Barack Obama may be playing possum."

And for the silly trolls who want so desperately for us to let them frame the race for us, answer me this: Why can't McCain and Palin put this thing away? Why, after such a clever and calculated move as putting Palin on the ticket, and after a heavy barrage of lies and smears for more than a week, has the tiny post-convention bounce not turned into anything bigger for them?

Your team is stuck. The steamroller ran out of gas before it even got to the road.

Money talks, bullshit walks, but dumbshits fall flat on their face.

He's going to need this money. The MSM isn't doing much of a job of calling McCain and Palin on their lies.

http://palincounter.blogspot.com/

Please help spread the liar meme. Digg this new Obama ad

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/09/new-ad-deception-is-all-mccain.html

Let's buy ourselves an election.

Notice how with less money McCain/Palin continues to dominate the narrative.

This race will still be decided based on:

Race
Trust
Experience

We also are serial, but erratic, contibutors to Obama... depending on news, frustrations, e-mail cajoling, position of the stars...
BUT, every time I send in another chunk of money I wish that campaigns were not so expensive. That buying ad time from
networks that use the PUBLIC airwaves is so costly and shouldn't be!

I'm glad for Obama's campaign to have gotten $66 Million, but just think what all
that money could do to help hurricane victims, or earthquake relief or OXFAM or... instead of going into fat main stream media coffers!!

This is my second post, though I have been reading and taking solace from TPM for awhile.
Thank you TPM and all, for, well, being there!