More news that is adding the narrative of a Democratic Party not just on the defensive but increasingly looking hapless and overwhelmed: Mitt Romney outraised Barack Obama in May:
In his second month as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney outraised President Obama by almost 30 percent, raking in $76.8 million in May.
The money will be shared among the Romney campaign and affiliated GOP committees. The Obama campaign will split a $60 million haul with Democratic committees. Both campaigns announced their totals on Twitter Thursday morning, ahead of the June 20 Federal Election Commission filing deadline.
Romney’s May total is almost double the $40.1 million he raised in April, when he came within $3.5 million of matching Obama.
And the former Massachusetts governor is off to a torrid start in June. He has already raised a reported $15 million in Texas during the early days of the month.
Obama raised the same amount at a May fund-raiser at the home of actor George Clooney. He also has been busy this month; he attended a trio of high-dollar fund-raisers with former President Bill Clinton in New York on Monday and another three in California on Wednesday.
AND:
The Obama campaign reported 147,000 first-time donors, bringing the total number of campaign contributors to 2.2 million.
It continued to emphasize the modesty of its donations, saying 98 percent were less than $250 and that the average gift was $54.94. The Romney campaign said 93 percent of its contrubutions were $250 or less.
The statistics from both camps are slightly misleading because they do not account for contributors who split their donations into installments; the gifts of a donor who has contributed $100 in each of the last 10 months are included in the Obama campaign’s 98 percent figure and the Romney campaign’s 93, even though the donor is a $1,000 contributor.
But Obama appears to have more grassroots support than Romney.
If the drip-drip-drip of stories that don’t make Obama and/or the Democrats look good continues, the media narrative may shift to a version of The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin’s:
President Obama, I have frequently argued, has been fabulous for the conservative movement. He spurred the creation of the tea party. He helped the GOP win the House majority in 2010 and make big gains in the Senate. His Obamacare has helped revive the Commerce Clause and given a boost to conservative jurisprudence. His refusal to support human rights has caused a bipartisan revulsion and reminded us that foreign policy must be girded by American values. He’s sent independents running into the GOP’s arms. He’s forced conservatives to think hard and express eloquently principles of religious liberty, limited government, free markets and Constitutional democracy.
Obama also has wrecked havoc in the the Democratic Party. He’s firmly affixed the “tax and spend” label to it after Bill Clinton declared that the era of big government was over. He’s made Clinton into a pitch man for Mitt Romney. His rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline has split the party. His refusal to adopt the Simpson-Bowles commission’s recommendations has turned Democrats into reactionaries, defending the status quo on entitlements. He’s alienated Jewish voters. He’s re-McGovernized the party, which now stands for appeasing despotic powers, turning on allies and slashing defense spending.
And right now the Democrats don’t look as much like The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight as The Gang That Shoots At Each Other. Even Bill Clinton is now backtracking on gift-to-Republicans he just made.
Can it be a route this early? A new poll shows Romney gaining strength in Michigan and now dead even with Obama. Meanwhile, Obama is being sharply criticized on the left for the Democratic/big labor debacle in Wisconsin.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.