Here's today's run-down of the Congressional races:

Bachmann's Challenger Goes On The Air
Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Democratic opponent El Tinklenberg is taking advantage of the huge windfall of donation he's gotten in the wake of Bachmann's Red-Scare-inciting Hardball appearance -- he's raised $700,000 in the last few days, and counting -- and is spending $188,000 to air this new spot introducing himself to voters:

This is very much a GOP district -- it voted 57%-42% for George W. Bush in 2004 -- but the Tinklenberg campaign hopes to capitalize on voter backlash against Bush Republicanism in general and against Bachmann's extremism in particular. Meanwhile, CQ has changed its rating on the race from "Republican Favored" to "Leans Republican."

Bachmann Denies Questioning Obama's Patriotism
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is firing back at critics of her McCarthyite statements on Hardball last week. "Despite the way the blogs and the Democratic Party are spinning it, I never called all liberals anti-American, I never questioned Barack Obama's patriotism," Bachmann writes in a guest op-ed for the Politico. Here's what Bachmann said, via Nexis: "Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views."

Read more »

Obama's cash on hand numbers are in, and they're astounding: He entered October with $133.6 million in the bank.

That comes after the news that he raised $153 million in September.

Combine Obama's cash on hand with the DNC's cash on hand number -- $27.4 million -- and you have a total Dem cash number of $161 million.

Meanwhile, McCain's cash on hand number entering October was $46.9 million, well under half of Obama's.

Combine that with the RNC's cash on hand, which is $77.5 million, and you get $124.4 million in total GOP funds -- less than Obama's cash on hand alone, not even counting the DNC.

That puts the Dems nearly $40 million ahead of the GOP at the beginning of October, a significant financial advantage as time runs out.

On a conference call with reporters just now, the McCain campaign rolled out its grand new push-back against Obama's smashing $150 million September in fundraising: There's something fishy going on here.

The root of their argument is that about $300 million of Obama's total fundraising to date has come from donors whose amounts were lower than the $200 threshold at which the campaign would legally be required to itemize and disclose the donors' identities -- and there are so many of them that the Obama camp has said it would be unfeasible to itemize them all voluntarily.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis rolled out a new term for these donations: "Secret Donations."

"And I only say secret because I have no doubt that there are sort of -- the vast majority of those are probably legitimate," Davis explained. "But they're being kept secret by the Obama campaign, for no good reason."

Davis later made a direction accusation that Obama "gets away with raising illegitimate money and spending it," and questioned the campaign's honesty when they say they've been returning bad donations that have been flagged.

Late Update: Here's the audio of the call:

Click To Play

DNC Raises Nearly $50 Million In September
The DNC announced this morning that they raised $49.9 million in September, and had $27.4 million cash on hand at the end of the month. Together with the Obama campaign's haul of more than $150 million, the combined Democratic fundraising total for September was an astonishing $200 million, far ahead of the RNC's $66 million and the McCain campaign's $85 million in one-time federal grant money.

Obama In North Carolina, Biden In Washington State
Barack Obama is holding a rally at 1:30 p.m. ET in Fayetteville, Norah Carolina. Joe Biden is holding a rally at 5 p.m. ET in Tacoma, Washington.

McCain In Ohio, Palin In New Mexico
John McCain is holding a rally at 1 p.m. ET in Westerville, Ohio, and a rally at 4:15 p.m. ET in Toledo, Ohio. Sarah Palin is holding a 5:30 p.m. ET rally in Roswell, New Mexico. Cindy McCain is holding a 3 p.m. ET rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

McCain: Powell's Support Of Obama Not A Surprise
During his appearance this morning on Fox News Sunday, John McCain reacted to Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama: "Well, I've always admired and respected General Powell. We're longtime friends. This doesn't come as a surprise." McCain added that he's glad to have the support of four former Secretaries of State -- Kissinger, Baker, Eagleburger and Haig -- and he continues to respect and admire Powell.

McCain: Obama's Fundraising Could Lead To Scandal
Also during his appearance on Fox News Sunday, McCain responded to Barack Obama's record monthly fundraising haul. "So what's going to happen?" McCain said. "The dam is broken. We're now going to see huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal." McCain added that we'll eventually have to pass legislation to deal with the problems created by Obama's small-donor fundraising model.

Polls: Obama Up In Wisconsin, McCain Ahead In West Virginia, Tight Race In Ohio.
A new round of Mason-Dixon polls gives Barack Obama a big lead of 51%-39% in Wisconsin, and McCain a 47%-41% lead in West Virginia. Meanwhile, McCain has 46%-45% edge in Ohio. All three polls have a ±4% margin of error.

Obama Has Campaigned More Than McCain In "Real Virginia"
CNN took a look at the candidates' travel schedules, and found something interesting in light of McCain surrogate Nancy Pfotenhauer's comments about "Real Virginia": In the battle for this state's 13 electoral votes, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have made more campaign appearance outside of Northern Virginia than John McCain and Sarah Palin have.

Here's another key piece of info from that McCain campaign conference call earlier this evening: The McCain campaign announced that the RNC took in a whopping $66 million in September.

"The RNC had its best fundraising month last month," said adviser Greg Strimple. "It took in $66 million. That is the best month that they've had since October of 2000. We are very well-funded, and we are looking forward to a very aggressive last 30 days."

We still don't know how Obama and the DNC did, but this does put Obama's decision to forego public financing in perspective. McCain got about $85 million from the government, and on top of that McCain is getting a continued assist from private donations into the RNC's coffers, which can make up in a lot of ways for the constraints that public finance have placed on him.

The Obama campaign's bet was that they could continue to take in enough money to not only make up for the $85 million, but also outdo the GOP. And it's looking less likely that they'll manage to pull off that trick -- so we may end up be where we usually are every presidential election, with the Republicans having the financial advantage.

Dems And GOP At Financial Parity For General Election
The two presidential nominees and their parties entered the general election on roughly equal financial footing -- Barack Obama and the DNC had $95 million on hand, and John McCain and the RNC $94 million. Another fun number: In August alone, the two sides spent over $90 million altogether.

Obama In North Carolina, Biden Off The Trail
Barack Obama is holding a rally today in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a rally scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET. Joe Biden does not have any scheduled events.

McCain Speaks To National Guard, Palin In Florida
John McCain is speaking today to the National Guard convention in Baltimore, Maryland, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. Sarah Palin is holding a campaign rally in Lady Lake, Florida, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.

Dems Going After McCain On Health Care And Banking Statement
The Dems are pouncing on some comments by John McCain, in which he said health insurance should be deregulated in the same way as banking was, in order to achieve the same success. The Obama campaign and state Democratic parties have announced a series of events across the country, designed to attack McCain for this bizarre statement.

VP Debate Rules Dumbed Down
The rules for the upcoming vice-presidential debate have been altered at the McCain campaign's insistence, in an apparent attempt to make things easier on Sarah Palin. Instead of a more open-ended format that will allow the candidates to interact on the issues -- as will be the case in the presidential debates -- the VP debate will consist of much more formulaic question and answer rounds, allowing Palin to repeat stock answers.

McCain Camp Steps Up Palin's Foreign Policy Meetings
Sarah Palin will be meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger this week, in addition to her already-scheduled meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Polls: McCain Narrowly Ahead In Florida, Obama Way Up In Iowa
A new Research 2000 poll gives John McCain the lead in Florida by a 46%-45% margin, within the ±4% margin of error. Meanwhile Obama has a huge lead of 53%-39% in Iowa, which voted narrowly for George W. Bush in 2004.

New Obama Ad: McCain's White House Will Be Run By "Super-Lobbyist"
The Obama campaign has rolled out another ad attacking John McCain's links to Washington lobbyists, set to air on national cable and in targeted states starting tomorrow. This one specifically goes after McCain for tapping corporate "super-lobbyist" Bill Timmons to head up his transition team should he be elected:

DNC Raised $17.3 million In August
A national Democratic source has confirmed to Election Central that the Democratic National Committee raised $17.3 million in August, with $17.5 million cash on hand. Together with the Obama campaign's $77 million cash on hand, this brings the total Democratic war-chest to $94.5 million as of August 31.

Obama Off The Trail, Biden In North Carolina
Barack Obama does not have any scheduled public events for today. Joe Biden is campaigning in Charlotte, North Carolina, with an event scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

McCain Attending NASCAR Race In New Hampshire
John McCain is spending the day in New Hampshire, where he's attending a NASCAR race in Loudon.

NYT And WaPo Deconstruct Palin
The New York Times and The Washington Post are both out today with profiles of Sarah Palin, and they are must-reads. The total picture that emerges of Palin is very clear: She is a megalomaniacal, vindictive right-winger who serially uses her offices for her own personal benefit, to harass political opponents, and to pursue personal vendettas against people she dislikes.

Palin Still Lying About Bridge To Nowhere
At her rally yesterday in Carson City, Nevada, Sarah Palin again trotted out the lie that she opposed the Bridge To Nowhere, despite having been forced to admit during her interview with Charlie Gibson that she had supported it. Palin again used the standard line, "I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere -- that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves.

McCain Campaign Keeps Lying About Crowd Sizes
Despite a Bloomberg report accusing the McCain campaign of lying about crowd sizes, they're apparently still at it. Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki boasted at yesterday's Carson City event with Sarah Palin that 10,000 people were in the crowd -- in an arena that only holds 3,500 people.

The McCain campaign announces that he's raised a whopping $47 million in August -- the first time that he's racked up Obama-like fundraising totals.

The secret to McCain's success? Sarah Palin, who apparently generated some $10 million in donations since the announcement that she'd been picked, suggesting that social conservatives are now reassured by her candidacy.

McCain's huge haul -- roughly double his pull in past months -- also strongly suggests that GOP donors have grown much more bullish on his chances in the past few weeks, probably because of the stepped-up aggressiveness of McCain's attacks on Obama and the persistent tightness of the race in polls.

New Obama Ad: Regardless Of VP Pick, McCain Just More Of The Same
The Obama campaign has a new ad on national cable, responding to Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate. The ad says regardless of McCain's pick for vice president, he still just promises more of George Bush's agenda:

Obamas And Bidens In Ohio Today
The Obama-Biden ticket is continuing their Rust Belt bus tour, stopping today in Ohio. Earlier this morning they attended a public memorial for the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and tonight they have a rally in Dublin scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m.

GOP Ticket In Pennsylvania Today
John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning today in the town of Washington, Pennsylvania, a small suburb of Pittsburgh.

Palin: Global Warming Isn't Man-Made
In an interview with the right-wing site NewsMax, Sarah Palin gave a scientific pronouncement that goes against John McCain's own stated position as well as most credible scientists. On global warming: "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made."

Palin Pick Gives McCain Financial Boost
Jonathan Martin reports that Sarah Palin's selection was able to give John McCain a boost in excitement and fundraising. A campaign aide says they took in about $4.5 million yesterday, a very impressive number.

McCain Adviser: McCain Will Live Long Enough To Teach Palin Foreign Policy
Here's what long-time McCain political aide Charlie Black told the New York Times about concerns over Sarah Palin's inexperience: "She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long."

New McCain Ad: Obama "Dangerously Unprepared" To Deal With Iran
The McCain campaign has a new ad out, which the campaign says will run in "key states," attacking Obama as "dangerously unprepared to be president" and confront the threat of Iran. The ad -- and it's a good question whether this will seriously run anywhere -- seems tailor-made to counter today's Dem convention theme of national security:

Tonight: Bill Clinton And Joe Biden To Address Convention
Tonight's theme for the Democratic Convention is national security, but two speakers in particular will get the most attention: Bill Clinton, who will have the tough job of following Hillary's speech for unity from last night, and Joe Biden, whose role will be to tear into John McCain as Barack Obama's running mate.

Obama In Montana Today
Barack Obama is campaigning today in Billings, Montana, a state that has been improbably brought into contention this election season.

McCain Off The Trail Today
John McCain does not have any announced public events for today.

NYT: Obama Camp Falling Short Of Fundraising Goals
The New York Times reports that the Obama campaign's fundraising totals, while impressive, are not enough to truly make it worth the time and effort he has to spend on fundraising in order to make up for the public money he has foregone. A source of the problem: Anemic fundraising from former Hillary Clinton donors, who only give about $4 million in June and July.

Don Young Just Barely Ahead In Alaska Primary
After a close vote count all night long, scandal-plagued GOP Rep. Don Young of Alaska seems to be just barely fending off primary challenger Sean Parnell -- which would drastically raise the Dems' chances of winning this seat in a deep-red state. With 97.9% of precincts reporting, Young is ahead by 145 votes out of nearly 85,000 between the two of them, and only nine precincts have yet to report.

Poll: McCain Ahead In Florida
A new poll of Florida from Strategic Vision (R) gives John McCain a 49%-42% lead in this big swing state. Recent polls have all given McCain the edge here, though his lead in this poll is a bit bigger than in the others.

Poll: Freshman Dem Faces Tight Race In Deep-Red District
A new SurveyUSA poll shows freshman Dem Congressman Chris Carney, who won his rural Pennsylvania district in 2006 thanks to the incumbent's scandals, is in a very tight race against his Republican opponent. Carney has 49% against GOP nominee Chris Hackett's 45%, within the ±4% margin of error.

DNC Out-Raises RNC For First Time This Cycle
The Democratic National Committee has announced that they raised $27.7 million for the month of July, just edging out the RNC's $26 million, the first time this whole cycle that the usually-underfunded DNC has outdone the RNC. The DNC, including its joint committee with the Obama campaign, has $28.5 million cash on hand, bringing the Democratic total with the Obama campaign to $94.3 million -- just narrowly behind the Republicans' aggregate total of over $100 million on hand.

Obama Leaves Hawaii
Barack Obama's Hawaiian has come to an end last night, as the candidate left the islands to head back to the mainland and the campaign trail. Between now and November, it will be practically nothing but non-stop campaigning.

Obama And McCain To Appear At Saddleback Church Tonight
Barack Obama and John McCain will both be at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church tonight, where they will take questions separately from Warren on various national issues. Note that this is not a debate, in which the candidates would take questions simultaneously, though they are expected to share the stage for a brief photo opportunity. The event is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET.

Loretta Sanchez: Half Of House Dems Could Vote For Hillary At Convention
In an indication that the Democratic Convention could unintentionally give an appearance of Democratic disunity, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California is predicting that up to half of the House Dems could end up voting for Hillary Clinton under an open roll call. "I felt she was the most experienced and the best candidate and I still feel that way," Sanchez added -- though for the record, it should be noted that Hillary herself has said she personally plans on voting for Obama.

McCain: Western State Water Compact Should Be Reopened
John McCain may have just gotten in trouble in the key swing state of Colorado, telling The Pueblo Chieftain that the 1922 water compact among Western states should be renegotiated. Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar responded by saying Mccain's position is "absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body," and that Colorado should fear losing more its water resources if negotiations are opened up again.

GOP Senate Candidate: Feds Raking In Cash On The Backs Of Oil Companies
And speaking of Colorado, the campaign of Democratic Senate nominee Mark Udall is sending around this tracker audio of Republican nominee Bob Schaffer complaining that the federal government is taking too much money from the oil companies. "But because prices are soaring, the reality is the federal government is raking in a bunch of cash right now on the backs of energy producers," Schaffer says -- perhaps not the most popular message this year:

From the Obama campaign's release:

Senator Barack Obama's campaign announced today that more than 65,000 new donors contributed to the Obama campaign during the month of July, bringing the total raised for the month to over $51 million. More than 2 million people have now contributed to the campaign.

"The 65,000 new donors to the Obama campaign demonstrate just how strongly the American people are looking to fundamentally change business as usual in Washington. We are proud of the millions of volunteers and more than two million donors to the Obama campaign who will provide the backbone of our campaign to put America back on track and reject the old politics and failed Bush policies, which is all John McCain is offering," said David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America.

The Obama campaign also says they now have roughly $65 million on hand.

Obama raised $52 million last month, and with the $51 million this month we can see that Obama has kept the pace of roughly $50 million a month he needs to meet his goal of raising $300 million or more.

Obama's haul is also nearly double the $27 million raised by McCain in July. The McCain campaign and Republican National Committee have roughly $100 million on hand. The DNC's numbers are expected sometime this weekend, so we'll soon be able to see how the two sides stack up against each other.

In yet another indication that Barack Obama's financial advantage may not prove to be all that formidable, the McCain campaign has just announced a solid fundraising month for July. Campaign manager Rick Davis said on a conference call with reporters just now that they took in $27 million, compared to $22 million in June.

The RNC also took in $26 million, and has $75 million on hand. Between the McCain campaign, the RNC, and the national and state-level joint victory funds, Davis said the current total cash on hand for the GOP's campaign effort is over $100 million.

And the McCain campaign will also be spending a whole lot of money this month, as they burn through their entire reserves before McCain receives his federal funding for the general election. "We'll have a very good August, as far as expenditures go," Davis said.

The Obama campaign and DNC numbers for July have not yet been announced, but they did quite well in June: The Obama campaign took in $52 million, and the DNC brought in $22 million, with a total of $92 million cash on hand.

This is interesting: A good government group is set to ask the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the two big McCain stories of recent days -- the bundled contributions from Hess executives, and the bundling by Harry Sargeant, the guy who raised cash for McCain from a host of unlikely donors.

The request, which will be made on Monday by Campaign Money Watch, which first flagged the Hess story to us, raises at least the possibility that such a probe could be initiated during the campaign. Barring that, it could keep the stories going in the press a bit.

David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch confirms to me that they'll make the formal request on Monday, and MoveOn also is demanding a Federal probe in an email that just went out to supporters. Donnelly says that his group's request is being triggered by McCain's letter to the donors whose contributions had been bundled by Sargeant.

Donnelly said that the letter, which advised the donors of the legal ins-and-outs of such contributions, didn't go far enough in trying to determine what had happened.

"What he didn't say was, `Tell us who was responsible for giving you money to give to me, and we'll urge the authorities to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,'" Donnelly said. "The letter raises the question, 'Is the McCain campaign covering for his bundlers?'"

Read more »

You may have heard by now that former MoveOn chief Tom Matzzie has set up a new third-party effort with the somewhat unorthodox goal of targeting big GOP donors who support Swift Boat Vet-style efforts on the right.

The group, called Accountable America, is firing off a letter to hundreds of would-be donors warning them of the downsides of supporting such efforts.

We've got a copy of the letter, which you can read right here.

"Many of the leading donors to 501(c) and 527 organizations have had their business and personal affairs closely scrutinized by the media and well funded watchdog groups," the letter says in a not-so-implicit threat. It continues that the result of such probes could be "fines" and "public disclosure of anonymous donors."

The letter also vows that the group "will publicize the political and business relationships and corrupt activities of donors" to such efforts, and it actually has emblazoned at the top the word "warning."

Read more »

A McCain campaign aide confirms that the campaign is going back and examining the contributions bundled by our new friend Harry Sargeant, who was the subject of that big Washington Post piece detailing how he stockpiled money for McCain from a host of unlikely donors.

It'll be interesting to see what they find. Meanwhile, it looks like the national press is starting to pick up on the stuff we reported here yesterday about that lucrative contract delivering fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq that was allegedly wired for Sargeant by a Jordanian connection.

Getting interesting.

Late Update: It's worth noting that the McCain camp's decision to go back and look at the contributions came after revelations that some of the bundling was done by his iffy business partner, Mustafa Abu Naba.

Late Late Update: The McCain campaign has sent a letter to all of Sargeant's donors, informing them of the legal ins-and-outs of donating to Federal candidates.

Late Late Late Update: The Huffington Post's Sam Stein uncovers still more about Sargeant's political interests and potential reasons for currying favor with McCain.

The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk turns up yet another interesting contribution to McCain from a Hess employee:

Rocchio is not the only person employed by Hess who made a large contribution to McCain. In addition to the top exectives, Charles Harris, who lists his occupation as a "driver" for Hess, gave $2,300 to the presumptive Republican nominee in March.

That's hardly $28,500, of course, and it's a perfectly feasible donation. Nonetheless, in addition to their big contributions to the RNC's committee, the Rocchios also both maxed out to the McCain campaign this year, each giving him $2,300, along with this "driver." So another question is how many low-level Hess employees maxed out straight to the McCain campaign.

As we reported below, ten Hess Corporation executives and Hess family members each gave $28,500 to the RNC's committee to elect John McCain president, just days after he reversed his previous opposition to offshore drilling.

But the story gets better.

It turns out that Hess executives aren't the only ones who gave such huge sums to elect McCain -- generosity towards McCain apparently extends down into lower levels of Hess staff. A lower level employee gave the same, too, and so did her husband, even though he works for Amtrak.

The FEC filings show that Alice Rocchio, who's identified as a Hess office manager, and her husband, Pasquale Rocchio, who's described as an Amtrak "track foreman," each separately donated $28,500 to the RNC-McCain fund, which is called McCain Victory 2008. They gave the money on June 24th, the same day that eight other Hess execs and family members each shelled out the same amount.

So the Rocchios, who live in Flushing, Queens, donated a total of $57,000 to McCain's efforts.

I just reached Ms Rocchio and she insisted adamantly that the contributions were theirs.

"It was my option to give," she told me. "This is my favorite candidate...I fully acknowledge that [the donation] was done by myself personally, my own doing." She added that the same went for her husband.

When I pointed out that the Rocchios' job titles seemed to jar a bit with the size of their donations, Ms. Rocchio said that no one could guess the real income levels of other people.

"No one knows what someone's income taxes say," she told me.

Ms. Rocchio declined to say whether the contributions had been bundled by another Hess employee or who bundled them.

Late Update: It should also be noted that FEC reports have no record of any Federal political contributions for the Rocchios before 2008. They both gave the maximum of $2,300 to McCain's campaign this year.

Also, special thanks to TPM Reader AT for spotting this.

Late Late Update: Turns out the two rent their home.

In a sign that Al Gore is gearing up to lend a big assist to Barack Obama, reps for Gore are in the midst of talks with the Obama campaign about a planned high-dollar fundraiser for Obama at the Gore home in Tennessee, according to the Nashville Post.

The preliminary plans also call for a more public event in addition to the private big-money one, the paper says. Gore, who is obviously a huge fundraising draw, already hosted one "unity" fundraiser on behalf of the DNC in May, but this would be his first for Obama since he clinched the nomination.

No comment yet from Gore's office.

Late Update: Gore spokesperson Kalee Krider emails to confirm that the Gores will be hosting an event, though the time and place are undecided.

We now know that the Obama campaign and the DNC had a very good fundraising month for June, banking a total of $92 million in cash on hand -- putting them very close to the $102 million that John McCain and the GOP have between them.

But the more important long-term question is this: Which team is now raising money at a faster rate? What does the overall picture tell us about what things will look like later this fall?

We took a close look at the last six months of numbers, and here's our conclusion: Though the GOP got a big, big head start in fundraising while the Dems were still duking it out, the June fundraising numbers leave little doubt that the Dems are on track to vastly outpace the Republicans -- meaning the Dem team is almost certain to overtake the collective Republican machine in cash on hand by as soon as next month.

Read more »

Here's a bit more detail on Obama's $52 million June haul: According to the Obama campaign, some $50 million of this was raised for use in the primary, and $2 million was raised for the general.

Does this matter? Not really.

Campaign finance rules dictate that any money raised for the primary can be spent all the way up until the convention, even if the primary has already been settled. So Obama can spend the $50 million all the way up until the end of August -- not a difficult thing to do.

And as it happens, Obama could also roll over money left over from the $50 million for use in the general if he so chose. TPM's resident numbers-obsessive, Eric Kleefeld, checked in with Federal Election Commission spokesperson Bob Biersack, who confirmed that Obama can roll over that money because he's opted out of public financing and hence is no longer bound only to spend public money on the general.

So the only significance of the primary-general breakdown is that Obama can't spend the $2 million raised for the general until after the convention. And that obviously doesn't matter at all.

Late Update: Commenters are making a good point: The real significance of the $2 million for the general is that it means that all these donors are still there to be tapped for general election money.

The Democratic National Committee raised $22, 481,194 in June, spokesperson Karen Finney says.

The DNC's cash on hand total $20, 306,056.

That puts the total combined Obama and DNC cash in the bank at over $92 million -- very competitive with the GOP/McCain total of nearly $100 million.

Late Update: Our pal Instaputz has a good point about the faulty media coverage of Obama's fundraising.