Obama has outdone Clinton again. This time he beat her on totals - a rather misleading metric on which she beat him last time. With $31 million from the second quarter he beat her total of around $27 million. But it gets better. Once again, nearly all Obama's income is for the primaries. It seems that Clinton's total for the primaries is only around $21 million. He has now made up the gap caused by the $10 million she transferred from her Senate campaign.
John Edwards has fallen back to around $9 million, meaning that Obama outraised Clinton and Edwards combined. Bill Richardson maintains his fourth place in everyone's rankings with an impressive $7 million. Could he overtake Edwards next time?
Figures remain vaguer on the Republican side. Mitt Romney seems not to have surpassed his first quarter figures and is therefore likely to be on a par with Clinton rather than Obama. There is not much of a steer on Rudy Giuliani yet and Fred Thompson has not formally entered the race. John McCain looks likely to be running well behind Romney again.
Questions that remain outstanding:
In the last month of the first quarter, Giuliani, who had only just formally announced, topped the fundraising league? Was that a flash in the pan, or did he beat Romney in the second quarter?
How did McCain fare? If, like Edwards, he slipped back, he could be running at half the level of Romney and Clinton. He is unlikely to beat half Obama's total even if he improves on his first quarter score.
Is Obama a flash in the pan? The other big fundraisers - Clinton and Romney - have been in the market since last year (though Clinton was officially raising for her Senate campaign then). If Obama is benefitting from being the latest thing, he may not be able to maintain his current blistering pace.
Can newcomers catch up? What will be the effect on the race when Fred Thompson officially announces? Or if Gore or Gingrich enters?
