GOP Money Chase

As the third quarter winds down and the FEC reporting deadline looms, here's what to expect from the top candidates.

Giuliani advisers won't provide an estimate of their expected haul -- they are very good at keeping their estimates in house -- but they probably will not raise as much as they did last quarter. Through June 30, Giuliani had raised nearly $35M and had $16M left to spend, a burn rate of about 45%.

Romney has loaned himself nearly $9M, which, when subtracted from his $12M cash-on-hand, would suggest that receipts in have not kept pace with disbursements, generally, which have totaled more than $32M. Romney donors said that they had been told that Romney was prepared to spend another $5M to keep his campaign's budget intact. They give a range of $10M to $12M for individual contributions in the third quarter.

John McCain will raise between $4 and $5M; Fred Thompson will probably raise around $6M.

Quick thoughts here. One, Romney is spending untold amounts of money. He's had to, in order to raise his name ID against well-known challengers. So he has to raise lots more than every other candidate to keep financial parity. This is not happening.

Two, nobody's raising as much as last quarter, and still not nearly as much as the Democrats.

Three, McCain and particularly Thompson's numbers are pathetic. Thompson just started raising money, meaning that he just started hitting up his biggest supporters for maxed-out donations. And all he could scrounge up was a measly $6M? I suppose on a two-day-a-week work schedule, that's decent enough, but for someone who actually wants to be President...

There's a decent amount of bad news for all of these candidates here. And considering their continued disrespect of minority voters, as well as the difficulties succeeded an historically unpopular President, the pump is primed for....

A new savior!!!!

Newt Gingrich is poised to enter the presidential contest on Monday with an interesting device: A self-made draft site.

The site will ask people to pledge money for his campaign if he were to run, and will lay out his ideas for the country.

It's like the Night of 100 Stars, if by "stars" you mean "cranky Republicans seeing their grip on power slip away."