MSM: Obama raised $52M in June? Pfff. More good news for McCaint.

[jefferson_dem]

Chuckie Todd's idiotic response to Barack's eye-popping haul is more evidence that the MSM's working MEME is still in place. Matthew Yglesias describes it below.

Everything is Good News for McCain
16 Jul 2008 10:40 am

Can I just note that I seem to live in some kind of mirror universe where the fact that Barack Obama has, for months, maintained a modest lead over John McCain in every public poll constitutes bad news for Obama and that the specific reason it constitutes bad news for Obama is that the larger political climate is favorable to Obama. The trouble of course is that given the favorable climate the expectation is that Obama will lead, so in order to "really" win, he needs to win by some gigantic margin -- merely being the first Democrat in over thirty years to secure a majority doesn't cut it. Or something.

But wouldn't it be interesting to visit an alternative reality in which the goal of a campaign is to win the election rather than to beat arbitrary media expectations? In this world, a modest-sized but stable and consistent lead would count as an indication that you're winning. And the existence of favorable background conditions for your candidacy would assuage doubts that the lead is likely to vanish over time.

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/07/everything_is_good_news_for_mc.php

[NC_Nurse]

1. I like the first response:

"This is actually not a bad dynamic. Psychologically, the press couldn't handle the thought of McCain losing. So they can declare him the winner of their expectations contest, while Obama quietly wins the election.
Also, this dynamic makes it much less likely that McCain will do anything than what he is doing now -- giving bad speeches and issuing condescending press releases about Obama.
This election is going to be no fun until election night, which will be about the funnest night ever."


:thumbsup:

[Alter Ego]

6. I like that last line.

"Let's go back to talking about how wonderful John and Cindy are--oh fuck Obama's President-elect."

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Actually the first fun night will be the night of the first debate! Of course, the M$M

will spin it as a McSame win if he gets Sunni and Shia right. Lowered expectations for Repukes, much higher ones for the Dems. So what else is new?

Actually I think it's good that the M$M continues its spin on behalf of McSame; it keeps us working hard and not becoming complacent. If the M$M were in the tank for Obama and Obama was leading by a large margin, I fear that we would not work as hard.

[ErinBerin84]

2. did anyone see the part of Hardball yesterday

with Chuck Todd and Howard Fineman where they were trying to decide if McCain was more John Wayne, Harrison Ford, or Tom Hanks? They did say Obama had "sizzle", but it was a bizarre conversation.

[Connie_Corleone]

5. McCain is more like Grandpa from The Simpsons.

When I look at McCain, John Wayne, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks don't come to mind at all.

[NC_Nurse]

13. Yeah, really! Where did they get that?

That damned parallel universe thingy again!

John Wayne? :wtf:

[babylonsister]

3. Rec'd. I'm glad to see this in print. I think I'll send it to KO, though

surely he's noticed.

[kstewart33]

4. Thankfully, very, very few people watch Hardball.

Except for us political junkies(!).

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. What did Chuck Todd say?

[my3boyz]

9. He glossed over it like it was not a big deal and that McCain will still be very competitive. nt

[jefferson_dem]

10. Sorry. Context here.

-- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6509929&mesg_id=6509929

While Obama raised much more than the $30 million-plus that the Wall Street Journal reported last week, Obama’s $52 million is about what he should have raised for a candidate who is opting out of public funds for the general. Assuming that Obama rakes in at least $50 million each month from June until the end of October, that will be a minimum of $250 million. And when making the time calculation it takes to raise money, the ability to raise $250 million in five months was seen by many as the minimum a candidate would have to be able to raise to justify opting out and dismantling a finance team. By comparison, if you project that McCain will raise $20 million per month from June to August and combine that with the $84 million in public funds he’ll receive after the GOP convention, McCain will have $140 million-plus. Of course, the RNC has a significant advantage over the DNC -- but that race is narrowing. A DNC officials tells First Read it raised $22.4 million in June (up from its $4 million in May), and it’s cash on hand is $20 million (again, up from $4 million in May). By comparison, the RNC raised $25.7 in June and has $68.7 million cash on hand.

*** More numbers: A couple of more notes on Obama’s June haul: All but $2 million was in primary money. Also, contrary to the email that Plouffe issued, the Obama campaign tells us that they have $72 million cash on hand. When you combine that with the DNC’ $20 million, that’s $92 million cash on hand -- which is almost equal to combined McCain-RNC cash on hand of nearly $95 million. Still, McCain really doesn’t have a money problem. ... BLAH BLAH BLAH...

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/

[my3boyz]

8. I noticed Chuck Todd just said that McCain would be able to

equal Obama with money. He basically said McCain would not have any trouble matching Obama. Before they were saying what an advantage Obama will have but not anymore. He was including money for the RNC and DNC.

[qazplm]

14. good

then there is no excuse when McCain loses.

[kevinmc]

12. The RNC is going to spend all their money on McCain and screw the House and Senate ....

they are going to lose a lot of seats.