Obama's fundraising is so monstrous, that regardless of any previous stated intention to accept public funding, Barack should opt out so he can completely annihilate McCain in the general (assuming Obama is the nominee).

I'm sure this will happen anyways, as Obama seems to be building the case that he won't accept public funding unless McCain not only reciprocates, but also agrees to reject (AND denounce) any 527 spending on his behalf. I highly doubt McCain will pledge to not allow anybody to swiftboat Obama on his behalf, but if he did, then I'd be in favor or a publicly financed campaign.

Obama needs to begin his campaign against McCain in places like Texas, and Idaho, and South Caarolina

Fund raise like heck and do the retail politics stuff in EVERY red state and bankrupt McCain's campaign before it even gets going.

You get out your message which people like which lets you raise money which lets you buy ads in order to get out your message more.  If you can get into a positive feedback loop, it's hard to beat.

what do you mean perhaps?  

"perhaps the movement in these March 4 states is less about the massive amounts of money the Obama campaign is investing than it is about a genuine shift within the electorate away from Clinton towards Obama.."

clearly the movement in polls has much less to do with advertising dollars than it does with the clinton campaign's foibles and democrats nationally coalescing around an obama candidacy.  the fact that polls are moving as much as they are in pennsylvania, a state that has had no special attention thus far and whose primary is a long ways off, as well as nationally more than proves this point.  

The rumor is that he will report 50,000,000 for February.  Can you imagine?  If he reports THAT kind of momentum prior to next Tuesday (say Monday morning)... any late deciders will likely break in his favor.

Everyone likes the winner, right?

So, if each current donor donated the maximum $2,300 for the general election, Obama could raise $2.3Billion DOLLARS!!!!

Its at the top of the Daily Kos front page right now:

and let me just add to what karl sent you last night about the obama campaign doing more to rebuild the party in two weeks than the party's done in years.... he's 1000% right.

we have - in tarrant county alone - 3400 volunteers and over 600 precinct captains.  that means that we could fill almost every single precinct captain spot in tarrant county.  one of our goals has been to ask these volunteers to continue to serve their local parties, and we are urging our precinct captains to become precinct chairs where ever there is an empty spot. if our people will fill the empty spots, we could have a precinct chair in every precinct in tarrant county for the first time in over 15 years.

This ground game SHOULD continue from now until November. In places like Texas, Iowa, COlorado, Mississippi, South Carolina. Supposedly safe red states.

Add this approach to Obama's money and it will be a tsunami by November.

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and watch a lot of CNN and MSNBC. On those two stations, I've only seen ads for Barack Obama. As a Hillary Clinton supporter, it's a little disappointing. I don't watch network channels, so I don't know if she's hitting those or not.

The important thing about the money is that its not just that it goes to ad's, but it also goes to professional staff to supplement and coordinate volunteer stuff on the ground. And thats more valuable than a 30 second ad spot. Let's look at the results from 2004, and where the contest was incredibly close:

  1. Wisconsin, Kerry, 0.38%
   2. Iowa, Bush, 0.67%
   3. New Mexico, Bush, 0.79%
   4. New Hampshire, Kerry, 1.37%
   5. Ohio, Bush, 2.11%
   6. Pennsylvania, Kerry, 2.50%
   7. Nevada, Bush, 2.59%
   8. Michigan, Kerry, 3.42%
   9. Minnesota, Kerry, 3.48%
  10. Oregon, Kerry, 4.16%
  11. Colorado, Bush, 4.67%

Does anyone honestly see, with a money and ground-game advantage, any of the states Kerry lost, going into the McCain column? Especially Iowa and New Mexico? I don't understand how anyone, looking at the numbers, sees some sort of mysterious McCain blow out.

Nobody really knows how many small donors are putting their money where their values are this time around... and the main event hasn't even started yet.

Do the Republicans want to make it a 527 battle? Two can play at that game. And as with the Obama campaign, grassroots commitment and money is a very powerful thing.

Obama has been blessed with great news coverage so far and yet he still loses to McCain by 2 points per the LA Times/Bloomberg poll. Only 46% think he has enough experience to be president.

I would not have been comfortable if Obama had a 15 point lead given his massive advantage in the press so far. I know its early but this is a very bad sign.

All the talk about Obama appealing to Republicans and Independents is bull. If it were true he would be destroying McCain. And Obama has been treated like the medias darling in the mainstream press, on liberal blogs, on liberal radio and even by some Republicans. In addition, he's spent more than any candidate on advertising and he's still losing to McCain.

Have the Dem's picked another losing candidate for the general election? It sure looks that way to me. I've been telling people to wait a few months and Obama will be taken down by the right. But the man is ALREADY losing. He was a state senator 3 years ago; 1.5 of those years has been campaigning.

The Republicans run a war hero with decades of experience and we run Richie Cunningham, the community organizer.

These tired Clinton campaign memes are getting old. And we've seen this inevitability argument told months ago, when its was about Clinton supposedly walking away with the golden goose. And we see how well THAT worked out for her campaign. Same with the decades of experience. Why would that fail in the primary, and all of a sudden get new life in the general. No one knows, and certainly the supposed "liberals" pushing it aren't substantiating it.

There's certainly a glass half empty/half full to these polls and numbers. People will read into them what they want. But as indicated not by polls, but by actual VOTES and MONEY donated, Obama is on his way to make a strong and powerful campaign showing in the general election. Anyone who thinks a man who can garner over 1 million separate donors against a guy who can't fill a banquet room at a Holiday Inn is weak, has a few bolts loose.

he needs to opt out.