Bush raises $34 million

Reuters is reporting that Bush has raised a record $34 million in the latest quarter. First of all, I do hope that this election is not decided by the person who raises the most campaign contributions. Granted that what I’m about to say sounds naive, but this should be about electing a leader who will do the things you want while in power, not the person who has the most TV ads. From the article:

President Bush (news – web sites) raised a record $34.2 million in the last three months, dwarfing a field of nine Democrats led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s Internet-driven $7.5 million haul.

What jumps out at you in that paragraph is the $34.2 vs. $7.5, a huge gap. But, hidden in that paragraph is the fact that there are nine Democrats that each have a portion of the total contributions. Bush has the advantage of being the incumbent, running unchallenged for his party’s nomination. The nine Democrats may have raised nearly as much as Bush, but they will have to split the contributions and mindshare until some people start dropping out.