Obama Uses Internet to Beat Clinton In Campaign Fundraising

If Barack Obama has been painting himself as a new generation of leader, he has now shown himself to be a new generation of Presidential candidate in an important way:

He has beaten Senator Hillary Clinton in campaign contributions by tapping the Internet, and getting lots of smaller contributions from the Democratic party’s rank and file:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is dominating presidential fundraising, raising the most money and bringing in far more contributors than rivals such as Hillary Clinton, who leads in national polls.

The Illinois senator yesterday reported contributions of at least $32.5 million in the second quarter, compared with about $27 million raised by New York Senator Clinton. Obama raised about $31 million for the primary elections compared with an estimated $21 million for Clinton.

Obama’s focus on using the Internet and other venues to attract a greater pool of smaller donors who can keep giving puts him in position to keep beating Clinton in fund-raising battles. Clinton has a far higher percentage of supporters who have already given the maximum amount to her for the election.

In other words: she has many more wealthier contributors. He has more contributors. And this has some significance:

“Money doesn’t determine election outcomes, but at this stage it is a rough proxy for support from Democratic elites and true believers,” said David Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester in New York. “They appear to be putting their money with Obama, both in number of donations and in absolute dollars.’

Another tidbit the news story points out is that at this stage of the game Democrats are beating their rivals in terms of fundraising.

Senator John McCain has fallen short of his fundraising goals — not suprising since McCain has also fallen short of the political expert hype a year ago, which put him at the head of the pack, almost destined to get the nomination as the Republican establishment’s candidate. Now due to his Iraq war, campaign fundraising and immigration positions, his campaign is sagging and lagging behing Rudy Giuliani’s and Mitt Romney’s.