Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 after running the first $1 billion campaign in American history, but this year Mitt Romney’s fundraising effort could be the David to Obama’s Goliath.
The Obama fundraising machine was supposed to have been untouchable by any of his potential Republican opponents, but sagging poll numbers and a robust Romney fundraising effort suggest even $1 billion might not be enough to save him.
The Obama campaign has struggled out of the gate to find its message. It’s effort to nail Romney on Bain Capital has largely fallen flat amid dissension from within the president’s own party – many of whom have been big recipients of Bain cash. And the effort to paint Republicans as engaging in a “war on women” has failed to catch fire.
The president also faces an uphill battle because no president has been re-elected when unemployment has been over 8 percent since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.
If issues were not enough of a problem for the Obama campaign, campaign finance data shows that it has consistently been spending more than it has received on salaries and related expenses.
During the month of May, the president raised just $39.4 million for the month of May and spent $44 million – with the bulk of the campaign’s expenditures going to salaries rather than on getting its message out.
Even though Obama, unlike Mitt Romney, lacked a primary challenger, his campaign spent just under $148 million since January compared with $104 million for Romney who faced stiff primary challenges.
The president has held 160 fundraisers so far, and the campaign has yet to reach peak intensity.
In the era of Citizens United, any fundraising advantage the Obama campaign might has is offset by the ability of groups like American Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity, which have spent $22 million as of last week on ad campaigns, can more than make up for Obama’s fundraising advantage.
And Romney outraised Obama $77 million compared with $60 million for Obama in May alone.
It could be a bumpy ride ahead for Team Obama.
