Obama: The Half-Billion-Dollar Man

[brooklynite]

from Time Magazine:

Is Barack Obama worth $500 million? The Democratic Party is betting he'll help bring in about that much — if not more.

As the public face of the party, Obama is responsible for both his own campaign's fund raising and for that of the Democratic National Committee — a combined estimated goal of $450 million. He's also pledged to help Hillary Clinton with her reported $20 million in debt to various vendors, and congressional Democrats are hoping his financial coattails will be tens of millions of dollars long for their own electoral purposes.

These are staggering sums for someone who was still paying off his student loans three years ago. But the freshman Illinois Senator shattered so many records in the primaries — raising nearly $300 million in 16 months — that he's a victim of his own success in the general-election expectations game. The public has become numb to his staggering sums, as have his donors, a danger for a campaign seeking to make folks feel involved. After all, how much of a difference can an extra $25 make in a pool of half a billion?

Donors, especially on the Democratic side, may be getting a little burnt out. More than $1.04 billion was raised during the primaries for the 24 presidential aspirants from both parties. Of that, $651.2 million went to Democratic candidates and $390.4 million went to Republicans. Sensing donor fatigue, Obama's e-mail appeals have slowed to about one a week, versus several a week at the height of the primaries. But Obama needs to keep up the pace: essentially he must repeat his primary feat, add more than 50%, and do it in a quarter of the time. "It's a huge task that we've got," said one top Obama donor. "I wouldn't define it as concern, but there's a realization of the enormity of what we are trying to accomplish and everybody is intensely focused on the task at hand."

Has anyone heard what Obama's 2nd Quarter filings were? They were due into FEC by today.