Buying the Top Job

Democrat Barack Obama raked in $25 million for his presidential bid in the first three months of 2007, placing him on a par with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and dashing her image as the party's inevitable nominee.

  Yahoo article

And kept quiet about it while Clinton's campaign was a-hootin' and a-braggin' for three days.

Hillary's campaign collected $26 million. And there's a couple of other key points. Number one:

The [Obama] campaign reported that the figure included at least $23.5 million that he can spend on the highly competitive primary race. The Clinton campaign has yet to disclose how much they can use for the primary [versus] money that is designated for the general election.

Read the article for how that works.

It seems Obama's donations, unlike Hillary's, have been small, individual donations from people not giving the maximum allowable, and who could therefore contribute some more later. (Of course, Hillary also has $10 million from her Senate campaign left over that she can throw in the pot.) Obama says he doesn't take money from PACs and lobbyists.

And, number two:

While Clinton has honed a vast national fundraising network through two Senate campaigns and her husband's eight years as president, Obama launched his bid for the White House with a relatively small donor base concentrated largely in Illinois.

[...]

[H]is early opposition to the Iraq war and voter excitement over his quest to be the first black president quickly fueled a powerful fundraising machine.

The race is on, Miss Inevitable.

"We should actually be publicly financing these campaigns," Edwards said. "We shouldn't be doing these money contests. They're not healthy, they're not good for democracy. Public financing is the answer."

Said Edwards, who has only raised $14 million.

But, he's right, of course. I wonder if he was pushing for that idea when he was running with the big money on Kerry's team.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.