Obama's campaign raises $66 million in August

Barack Obama set a presidential candidate record by raising $66 million this past August. Obama’s fundraising success was stated to be associated with his “continuing appeal to donors” and “robust outreach to new contributors.” The money was raised with the help of roughly 500,000 first-time donors. In contrast with Obama, McCain raised only $47 million in the month of August. August is typically a poor month for presidential fundraising; however the two candidates achieved fundraising success. McCain has a preexisting advantage over Obama thanks to his federally funded $84 million in tax payer funds. As a result of accepting the federal fund, McCain can no longer raise money for his campaign from donors. McCain is limited to spending that amount. Obama chose to bypass the public financing from tax payer funds, as he proved in the month of August, they can raise more.

As we have mentioned in class, finances play a huge role in political campaigns. Obama is more financially stable than McCain; therefore able to spend more money on his campaign. Obama is exploiting certain concepts of “new politics” to defeat McCain, primarily in the field of finances which leads to the use of technology. Before I read this article, I felt some bitterness concerning Obama’s financial strategies. I could not understand how or why Obama invested so much money into the campaign. Obama is simply playing the game by utilizing his strengths. My bitterness over Obama’s fundraising has transformed into respect and my retrospective view of democrats continues to proven. Democratic candidates continue to prove superior financial and economic strategies opposed to Republicans (example: Bill Clinton’s ability to manage our economy during his term compared to Bush’s current situation).