Obama Spending Dominance Continues -- He did the right thing in forgoing public financing.

Obama Spending Dominance Continues



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Reports obtained by The Fix detailing spending by the two campaigns as well as the Republican National Committee show that Obama dropped more than $32 million on television in 17 battleground states between Oct. 7 and Oct. 13 -- an increase of $12 million over what he spent between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6.

During that same time period, McCain spent approximately $10 million on ads in 14 states (the Arizona senator is not on television in Indiana, Michigan or Montana) while the RNC's independent expenditure effort disbursed $6 million more in eight states.

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Obama's decision -- announced on June 19 -- to make history as the first presidential candidate to forgo public financing for the general election has born considerable fruit in the months since he made it.

The virtually unlimited fundraising potential Obama has demonstrated since that decision has allowed him to make good on a pledge to alter the traditional red state/blue state divide and force McCain to spend his much more limited resources on defense rather than offense.

While Obama is now seriously competitive in a number of states President Bush carried in 2000 and 2004 -- Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Montana, Indiana, Ohio, etc. -- McCain has extremely limited opportunities to flip states Sen. John Kerry won in 2004.

In other words, Obama's fundraising edge has served a dual purpose: it has forced McCain to fight for ground that Republicans thought they would never have to worry about this close to the election AND it has narrowed McCain's pickup opportunities to New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

As we have written before, spending is not conclusive when it comes to determining the outcome of the election -- now just 20 days away. But, in an election where the playing field is so heavily tilted in the favor of Democrats, Obama's spending edge in crucial states makes McCain's task that much harder.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/10/obama_spending_dominance_conti.html

It seriously appears that without MAJOR manipulation, fraud, etc (I have a poll out on DU on whether W Bush Admin will concoct a "security" crisis before election) Obama has it

But supposing the Repukes will only be MARGINALLY corrupt (forget about being "non-corrupt", as in no more corrupt than the Dems and allies) is obviously untenable. The question is can they succeed even if they pull out all the available stops?

For months the media was being so bold as to include contributions to the RNC in McCain's totals when publishing fund raising numbers. Now it seems the RNC has decided to focus on different races instead of the disaster that is John McCain.

People would get a little ticked when he decided to decline in the beginning, but this would be the end result--that we just have more money than McGramps.