2008 Presidential Election: Democrats Rock Solid On Hillary Clinton’s Roll
THE Democrats look set to romp home in next year’s presidential election if money is any indicator.
As candidates from both parties released third-quarter fund-raising figures yesterday there was a mile-wide gap between the two parties.
Barack Obama’s team produced figures showing they had raised $20million and Hillary Clinton’s team, while failing to provide concrete numbers, said they had raised about the same amount.
The best the lacklustre Republicans could muster was Mitt Romney’s $10million, with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s team telling the New York Times that he would “do as well as the other Republican — maybe we will do better than some”.
Giuliani has taken a succession of knocks lately.
He was savaged in the New York Times on Sunday by Thomas L. Friedman who called him the 9/11 candidate when America needed a 9/12 president. Meanwhile, he’s had a hard time among traditional Republican supporters too. His gimmick of interrupting a recent speech to an NRA gathering by taking a cell phone call from his wife, fell flat. Christian conservatives have begun talking about a third party candidate if the pro-abortion Giuliani wins the Republican nomination. And the newsmedia hasn’t even begun raking over his tangled personal life yet.
But – and didn’t you just know there was a big “but” coming – none of this means very much.
Yes, Republicans ought to worry that the Wall Street Journal today reported that the GOP is fast losing its reputation as the party of big business. (The paper says a recent poll showed the number of professionals and managers who identified themselves as Republican had fallen from 44% to 37% in the past three years while the percentage of hedge fund cash given to Democrats had risen from an already whopping 71% to 77% in the same period.)
Republican John McCain and Democrat John Edwards should also be worried that their campaign finances are falling behind the pack leaders (McCain raised $5m and Edwards $7m).
But for the parties themselves, and their eventual nominees, there’s still over one year to run. And if the Republicans know what they’re doing, they’re holding back the big guns for the slugfest ahead next year.
Two interesting questions remain: Is there such a thing as a flawless campaign? And if not, when (and how) is Hillary’s march going to come to a grinding halt?
Posted: 2nd, October 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (12) | TrackBack | Permalink
