The Obama fundraising juggernaut is intimidating, but you can raise all the money in the world — it’s how you spend it that matters. Over at The Weekly Standard’s blog, Jaime Sneider notes that Obama’s campaign is spendthrift and bloated:
Obama oversees a team of 700 people–more than twice as many as Bush in 2004–the biggest, most bloated campaign in the history of presidential elections:
So far in 2008, combined campaign-spending data for the three most recent months available–February, March and April–show that Sen. Obama outspent Sen. McCain 4.5-to-1 on staff salaries, more than 2-to-1 on office rents, and 25-to-1 on broadcast advertising, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sen. Obama has about 700 employees on the payroll, scattered across 19 states. The McCain cadre is around 100, divided among a handful of local offices.
These hired guns aren’t going to deliver Obama the presidency. Having that many cooks in the kitchen is going to dilute his message and bleed him dry. With a burn rate of 114 percent, the Obama campaign won’t be able to maintain spending at primary levels even if fundraising were to remain constant–which is unlikely because so many Democratic donors have already given the maximum contribution.
Also, if you watch the McCain Strategy Briefing, it notes that after a shaky start McCain/RNC combined fundraising is more than the Obama/DNC fundraising for April and I don’t know if the totals are in yet, but McCain/RNC fundraising was on pace to beat them in May as well. That certainly surprised me.