Obama’s Money: Should This Even Be A Race?

Is Barack Obama buying the presidency? That’s a legitimate question – and a good reason to take a look at the latest fundraising numbers.

According to the website Open Secrets, Obama has raised $603 million – or roughly $245 million more than Republican John McCain’s $358 million during this election cycle.

When it comes to spending, Obama has nearly doubled up on McCain – with $470 million already spent compared to the $262 million McCain has spent thusfar.

Yet is Obama getting the return on investment you’d expect with that sort of colossal cash advantage?

From the LA Times:

“Having hauled in a record $208,333 every hour of every day last month — $150 million in all — plus a few more unreported millions so far this month, Barack Obama is worried that he might come up short in the political money war with the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket.

Just to relieve himself of that $150 million before the polls open, Obama will have to spend $12.5 million a day…

Having now collected more than $605 million altogether, the freshman senator shows no concern over the appearance of buying the presidency. Imagine for a moment the national political conversation that could be going on now if rich Republicans had raked in that much loot for one campaign.”

Yet according to a recent poll by the AP among likely voters this race is a virtual dead heat when you figure in a three-point sampling error give or take:

“The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain’s “Joe the plumber” analogy struck a chord.”

Also, IBD Editorials shows Obama’s lead tightening rather than gaining.

“Contrary to other polls, some of which show Obama ahead by double digits, the IBD/TIPP Poll shows a sudden tightening of Obama’s lead to 3.7 from 6.0. McCain has picked up 3 points in the West and with independents, married women and those with some college. He’s also gaining momentum in the suburbs, where he’s gone from dead even a week ago to a 20-point lead. Obama padded gains in urban areas and with lower-class households, but he slipped 4 points with parents.”

All this Obama-mania, massive audience turnout and obvious love fest with the mainstream media makes us wonder why Obama doesn’t have a more significant lead in this historic race?

In fact, the FITS gals will go as far as to say we’re not so sure Obama has this one in the bag folks – and we might be the only ones to espouse this belief.

So what does it all mean? Obama may be banking on a big win, but when you look at the numbers, the only thing he can bank on is the fact that he is outspending McCain nearly 2 to 1.

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