Earlier, Phil brought us the news of McCain's imminent layoffs of staff, and now another column from NRO lays out some very precise reasons why. At least 2 million reasons...

With the close of the second fundraising quarter in the presidential cycle, Sen. John McCain is running out of money and therefore options. His fundraisers in big-money states like California report anemic totals per event. Talk of another "reorganization" circulated among Republicans in Washington over the weekend in anticipation of the numbers his campaign released this afternoon: They raised $11.2 million in the second quarter, but spent $14.4 million, leaving just $2 million in cash on hand. Terry Nelson, McCain's campaign manager, told a conference call of reporters that the campaign had been built on the assumption - now proven wrong - that it could raise $100 million in this calendar year. Moreover, he said, the immigration debate was killing his fundraising totals, pushing the campaign to seek federal matching funds for the primary.

Wow that kind of cash flow is really hard to make up on volume. Still eleven million is nothing to sneeze at and keeps McCain out of the 2nd tier next to Huckabee, Brownback, and Gilmore. But here's the real question that we won't get an answer to. How much of that money was raised in April compared to June?


The immigration deal was announced Mid-May with John McCain as a key co-sponsor. And if sponsorship of that bill had the same effect on his fundraising as it did on his poll numbers, we can assume that June was very tough indeed, and that his money outlook may look a lot worse if it wasn't for a decent April.

McCain's fundraising may have already shrunk to Brownback and Ron Paul proportions. With only 2 million cash on hand, and one of the larger staffs, the cuts have to be made, or the next payroll check time will be very interesting.

Still McCain has vowed to stay in the game, even if it's down to him, a couple of college interns, and a used schoolbus.