A Night of Numbers

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Howard Fineman

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Yes, We Can. Can’t We?

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"I feel good about where we are, David Axelrod said early Wednesday morning with a straight face. Obama's chief strategist can't really mean that. Yes, his man has won 28 primaries and caucuses, compared with 13 for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yes, Obama...

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Howard Fineman

WASHINGTON -- This is a night of numbers. I am at the NBC Washington Bureau, contributing reports to MSNBC and to Newsweek.com, and the first number I want to cite comes not from exit polls, but bank accounts. Last month, Sen. Barack Obama raised an astonishing $32 million, much of it on the Internet, and I am told by one of his top fundraisers that the campaign is on course to do nearly as well in February. Sen. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, raised $13 million, and has pretty much tapped out her contributor list.

The financial disparity is a key explanation for a change in strategy and tone today out of the Clinton campaign. Suddenly, Hillary is in favor of as many debates as possible. Free exposure is free exposure. She needs to get into and share Obama's limelight. Her campaign said today that it had "accepted" invitations to take part in at least five televised debates during the next few weeks. I asked a top Obama staffer about whether their man had accepted any of those invitations. The answer was "no."

Hillary had enough money to be rather fully competitive with Obama today, though she didn't dare do what he did -- spent $2.5 million on a Super Bowl ad. But that dynamic changes now, as small clusters of states and individual states hold primaries and caucuses. Obama will use his financial muscle to try to roll over Clinton, one event at a time.

In tactical terms, this always has been an odd campaign. Obama is the "outsider," yet he is an outsider who always had the potential to be better-funded than the Establishment candidate, Clinton. With the Daleys, Kennedys and half of Hollywood on his side -- and nearly a half a million internet contributors -- Obama has an outsider's strategy and an insider's clout.

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Member Comments

Posted By: timhebb (February 6, 2008 at 11:11 AM)

I forgot to mention that Dirksen, like Obama, was bored to death by the Senate - he died in office.

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Posted By: timhebb (February 6, 2008 at 11:03 AM)

Yes, I think the candidate for 1955Democrat is Everett Dirksen, who was elected to serve eight successive terms in the Congress. But he was, unfortunately, a job-hopper like Obama too: he then ran for and was elected to the Senate in 1950 for a mere four straight terms. Too bad he's not on 1955Democrat's ballot.

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Posted By: Bornita (February 6, 2008 at 6:42 AM)

If you feel he is moving too fast for you then don't vote for him. Concentrate on the ones that you like. I'm sure there is a candidate for you.

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