McCain Supporters Spitting Sour Grapes

This columnist says Obama is buying the election, which is a silly premise for one reason: Where is all that money coming from? Supporters. That means we're buying the election for him, or at least we're helping him spread his message to voters.

Both candidates made judgements on campaign spending and it looks like Obama made another good decision. He knew he had to combat the smear machine. McCain simply underestimated Obama's support.  

RCP: Barack Obama is well on his way to buying the Presidency. The effect of Obama's financial advantage has now even been admitted by the New York Times, whose editors and political writers already may be lighting up their victory cigars, like Red Auerbach, the Celtics coach of legend.

The state where the Obama campaign has been carpet bombing the airwaves most vigorously this past weekend was West Virginia. If you watched TV over the weekend in the Mountaineer State, you could not have missed the Obama ads -- an extraordinary buy of $1.2 million per day for 5 days, with ads running in every media market in the state. The McCain campaign, had it spent all of its $84 million for the general election on TV ads, would have had $1.4 million to spend per day for campaign ads for the last two months for all 50 states. Obama has just spent almost that much per day in one state with fewer than 2 million people and but 5 Electoral College votes.

And now the McCain camp is complaining that it doesn't know who Obama's $200 or less donors are. Well, they are people like me, who spend $25 here and there because we believe that Obama is going to be the best leader for our country. Seems like the McCain camp just can't get over Obama's successful campaign. 

Swamp: John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, today called Barack Obama "the greatest fundraiser in presidential history," but questioned why Obama has not disclosed the names of people who gave him $200 or less.

"Our house is right," said Davis, noting that McCain has disclosed all of his donors. "And the question remains, why with the technology he has at his hands and the demands for transparency that he is so well known for...why doesn't he do the same thing?"

The not-so-subtle suggestion from Davis is that Obama is collecting contributions from foreigners, which is illegal. Obama reported raising $150 million for his campaign last month, a record-breaker on every front.

Obama Raised $51 Million in July

The Obama camp also boosted its donors to more than 2 million.

Swamp: Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign said today that it raised more than $51 million in July, about $1 million less than he reported in June.

The campaign said it added more than 65,000 new donors in July, bringing its donor database to 2 million people. It reported having $65.8 million in the bank at the end of the month.

"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" Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a statement.

On Friday, Sen. John McCain of Arizona reported raising $27 million in July and said he had $21.4 million in his campaign bank accounts.

Obama's Wall Street Donors Want Change

Many bankers, traders and other finance types believe they've made enough money and aren't interested in policies that give them more (McCain). They're more interested in the Obama's platform of change. As an industry, they've given more to Obama than McCain.

Swamp: "Not all Republicans ``are opening their wallets to a McCain presidential run,'' Mallory Factor, a banker who co-hosts a weekly meeting of conservatives in New York and raised more than $1 million for Bush and his party four years ago, told Bloomberg.

"Some Republicans who ``support certain principles'' are shunning McCain, Factor said, citing the Arizona senator's initial opposition to Bush's tax cuts and his authorship of a campaign-finance law opposed by many in his party.

"Disdain for McCain is combined with enthusiasm for Obama in some quarters,'' Salant adds. "Many of the brokers, bankers and traders in the securities industry, who contributed $9.2 million to Bush and $4.8 million to Kerry four years ago, are now Obama supporters, motivated by issues such as the Illinois senator's opposition to the Iraq War. Obama has received $8.9 million and McCain $6.3 million from the industry from Jan. 1, 2007 through June 30 of this year, according to the center.

``Many people on Wall Street believed they had made enough money in life and were more concerned about the war and the generational effect that Obama brings to this election,'' Richard Hunt, a Washington-based lobbyist for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents Goldman Sachs Group and Merrill Lynch & Co, told Bloomberg. Employees of New York-based Goldman Sachs, the biggest U.S. securities firm, were Obama's top donors among all firms through June. McCain's top backers work at New York-based Merrill Lynch.