Mitt Romney is now so far ahead of Barack Obama in cash-for-campaigning-and-conquering that it’s hardly worth talking about.

… It is not unusual for challengers to outraise incumbents late in the campaign, and while Mr. Obama is being outraised now, he raised far more than Mr. Romney through 2011 and early this year.

But Mr. Romney’s extraordinary two-month run raising money — his team has pulled in more than $200 million in June and July — makes it virtually certain that Mr. Obama will not leave the Democratic convention next month with the cash advantage he had four years ago, when he heavily outspent the Republican candidate, John McCain, on his way to victory in November. The July totals do not include what Romney campaign officials said was a boost in both small online donations and large checks after Mr. Romney selected Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. …NYT

Still, weigh Republican money against Republican screw-ups and it’s a wonder they’re still on their feet and fighting. They may have to stage a redo in Missouri, just to stay in the race.

Fearing that a seat crucial to winning a Senate majority could slip away, the national Republican establishment on Monday unleashed a furious campaign to drive Representative Todd Akin, the party’s newly selected nominee, out of the race against Missouri’s Democratic senator.

Amid an uproar over provocative comments on rape and abortion that Mr. Akin made in an interview broadcast on Sunday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee declared that it would withdraw financial and organizational support for Mr. Akin, including $5 million in advertising already reserved for the fall. In the interview, Mr. Akin said victims of “legitimate rape” rarely got pregnant. …NYT

And the Akin race has been an important one for the GOP. They really want to remove Democrat Claire McCaskill from the Senate.

The Akin problem is not just about extremist rightwing thinking. It’s about the ignorance, brutality, and childishness that’s rampant on the churchly right. It’s about beliefs that are just plain funny and/or just plain dangerous.

C’mon! Tell me you didn’t laugh when you heard a prospective senator say he thinks women have special juices to cut off conception. The level of intelligence required to embrace that belief fits nicely into the world of stoned madness that also produces Romney-Ryan’s perilous concept of our need for more war. Maybe to solve the deficit problem?

Romney vows never to negotiate with the Taliban and declares, “We go anywhere they are and we kill them.” He beats the war drums on Iran. He has a bizarre itch to open a new era of confrontation with Russia.

When he sniffs the possibility of war Romney drops his frequent imitation of the Beatles’ Nowhere Man (“Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to”). He becomes a Real Man fired up.

After more than a decade of inconclusive U.S. wars, this is not reassuring.

In a similar vein, Ryan, whose experience outside Washington is limited, believes that in Afghanistan, “Now is the time to lock in the success that is within reach.” Said “success” is as hard to identify as the tax loopholes Ryan insists he wants to close.

The big question, of course, is how all this squares with the concerns over the U.S. debt that Romney has placed at the center of the campaign by picking Ryan. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost over $1.3 trillion. Several estimates, including one last year from Brown University, suggest the final bill will be $3.7 trillion or higher. …NYT

Cross posted from Prairie Weather

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