The Wall Street Journal reports that Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and senior adviser to Sen. John McCain, met with a group of 25 prominent supporters and fundraisers for Sen. Hillary Clinton at a private home in Westchester County, NY. The group included several so-called "Hillraisers," each of whom have raised in excess of $100,000 for Clinton's failed primary campaign. The meeting was repeatedly sought by the Hillary supporters and is at least the second such meeting between backers of Clinton and the McCain campaign.

An organizer of the meeting, Amy Siskind, said that the pro-Hillary groups represented pledged to help deliver, "hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of votes," to McCain if the groups find areas of agreement between themselves and his campaign.

News of the meeting will not be comforting to the campaign of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, who has been trying to close ranks behind his campaign after a contentious primary season. Clinton has endorsed Obama and has made fund raising and campaign appearances with him. She has also asked her supporters to get behind Obama's campaign. Still, polls show that Obama could lose a portion of Clinton's support in the general election, and the McCain campaign has been trying to exploit the differences between Obama and Clinton's supporters.

That's the conclusion of Patrick Ruffini, a conservative media blogger and veteran of many GOP fundraising campaigns. I haven't seen any official numbers out, but the rumor is that Obama's June haul is about $30 million, which is significantly below expectations. Patrick points out when and where Obama's big numbers came from:

Obama's fundraising surge came during and around primary elections with the outcome in doubt. Once it seemed he had it wrapped up, his online fundraising fell off dramatically. As we've seen, online fundraising can be hugely tempermental and event-driven. Hillary, who would normally raise $200,000 - $400,000 per email in slow periods, would see $10 million over a couple of days after winning a key primary like Pennylavania.

Though he will undoubtedly rise in the August-November timeframe, it's unclear to me if Obama will be able to recreate that same energy from the primary if the race remains outside the margin, or it falls back into the margin but with Obama's momentum deflated.

Fundraising-wise, this could look more like a "normal" election like 2000 or 2004 rather than the transformative election the primary was and the Obama campaign was banking on. This means Obama may have to break a sweat to match McCain and the RNC's money in the fall. And his massive email list, which could be out making calls and knocking on doors, may be diverted into heavy fundraising.

If Ruffini is right, Obama needs some element of danger, some way of convincing his supporters that he could actually lose to John McCain. Apparently, if these numbers are correct, they don't really believe that's possible. In order to win, Obama needs to convince his supporters he could lose. I know that's overly simplistic and borderline lame, but it was extremely fun to say it that way.

This tracks the 2004 campaign but with the roles reversed. Then it was Bush who had the appearance of an overwhelming money juggernaut, but Kerry did catch up over the summer of 2004 and they ended up extremely close in the money race. Lesson to Obama: Don't count on a money advantage in any situation. And if that's true, the public funding gambit will have been a blunder. And to think he broke a possible pledge to give it up.

Insert Dr. Evil pinky finger to end of mouth: $95 Meelyun Dollars! CBS News:

Davis said that the McCain campaign and Republican National Committee had $95 million cash on hand at the end of July – $26.7 million for the McCain campaign and $67.8 million for the RNC. (McCain's figure is down from the $31.5 million he had on hand at the end of May.)

He said McCain raised "just over $22 million" in the month of June – more than the candidate has raised in any previous month.

Davis also said that "the McCain campaign spends about $10 million a month less to run their campaign" than Obama, which he suggested has helped the campaign of the presumptive GOP nominee close the cash-on-hand gap on his rival.

As the article states at the end, the last time we heard from Obama he had raised $23 million in May and had $43 million cash in hand.

Two points here obviously. One is that those that were impressed by Obama's fundraising numbers and were looking at that as a reason to choose him over Hillary are probably getting a queasy feeling in their stomachs. Unless Obama can pull a rabbit out of a hat, his numbers will not look that impressive next to McCain here.

My own queasy feeling relates to the part that I bolded above. As I recall Kerry ran a very efficient campaign and even had money left over. But he lost. I'm hoping McCain remembers that and remember that the election is not won by the candidate that most efficiently manages money.

But still, it appears that McCain's moves dating back to a year ago, when his campaign was on the ropes and he was bleeding money are still paying off. He has a tight disciplined campaign, that's not a bad thing.

Update: I spoke with a well-placed source in Hillary Clinton's campaign, who told me a couple of interesting things. He said Obama will definitely not be picking a VP just to win a state, and that the short list now includes Hillary, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, and maybe Chuck Hagel. I've got a good feeling about this.


He also said, as I have, that Obama is doing so surprisingly well against McCain that he can pretty much pick his own ticket, but that the longer the choice takes, the better it is for Hillary.


Also, here's video of Bayh telling Andrea Mitchell today that he would say yes if asked to be VP.


The Obama campaign has sent out the final details on the candidate's first joint campaign appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton.

CHICAGO, IL- Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama will hold a "Unite for Change" Rally this Friday in Unity, New Hampshire. Both candidates received exactly 107 votes in the western New Hampshire town in the primary. See below for important event details regarding ticketing and parking.

Full text of the press release follows the jump. There's one detail that is omitted here, and that is whether or not Barack Obama will announce Hillary Clinton as his selection for Vice President.

This comes on the heels of Barack Obama's appeal to donors, Wednesday, to help pay down Hillary's campaign debt, and a reported meet 'n greet today between Obama and Hillary's big donors. There's magic in the air!

Ordinarily, I'm not a betting man, but one of my readers issued a challenge that I couldn't just ignore. Since tomorrow is so fraught with symbolism, I have a feeling in me bones, so I'd like to give my readers, and fellow writers, a chance to get in on this. To find out why I'm so sure there will be a Dream Ticket, just click the words Dream Ticket.

John McCain's campaign has released a new web video mash-up. It's simply Barack Obama, in his own words, all in context. The one minute video is titled "Words." It takes on Obama's most recent public lie.

"The Daily Show" took a few shots at the Obama campaign during last night's episode. Jon joked about Obama's seal blunder and his reversal on public financing.

"Barack Obama has changed the motto of the Presidential seal from E Pluribus Unum, from many to one, to Vero Possumus, which rougly means yes we can. How do you say 'but you shouldn't' in Latin?"

Big public ... that's funny. Stewart had to point out it's OK to laugh at Senator Obama. You can read that sentence again if you like. Is de-sanctification a word?

Updated: more video after the jump. HUMMER COPTER!

According to the Politico, it looks like McCain cannot thank Hillary enough for her help in leveling the playing field on the money front.

For the first time in the campaign, Republican John McCain in May raised about the same amount of money, $22 million, as Democrat Barack Obama.

McCain also closed the gap in the amount of cash in the bank the two parties' presumptive presidential nominees have at their respective disposals as they enter the first phase of the general election.

McCain reported having about $32 million in cash for primary related expenses at the end of May.
Obama reported having $43 million in hand at the start of June-but about $10 million of that is dedicated to the general election.

Obama's fundraising in May marked a sharp fall-off after months of record-breaking donations. Even in difficult times, such as when he suffered a key loss in Pennsylvania in April, Obama brought in a steady flow of cash that usually topped $30 million a month.

In other years the RNC is having a banner year:

As The Times' campaign finance guru Dan Morain points out, the sums are significant as presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain squares off against the far more richly-funded Sen. Barack Obama for the last 136 days of the general election campaign.

Based on the numbers so far, the Republican Party appears poised to act as the financial equalizer in the fall campaign. The RNC disclosed that it ended May with $53.5 million in the bank, compared to $3.9 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is headed by Howard Dean.

Another reason why Obama turned down public financing? Turns out he's not building the unassailable war chest everyone thought he was. This is pure speculation on my part, but my guess is that the business community is tilting heavily toward McCain due to rising gas prices and Obama's ambivalence on NAFTA.

But things are not all rosy with the McCain campaign, and I don't want to leave that impression. The Barack bounce is real, he is leading the polls and McCain has a long, long way to go. It isn't over, but McCain should be thankful the election isn't tomorrow.

Ahh, America, the land of the litigious.

The Democratic National Committee is once again trying to sue to force the FEC to investigate whether John McCain violated fundraising regulations after he borrowed $4 million last year and promised to repay the bank by seeking public matching funds if he needed them. He was approved to receive $5.8 million in public money, but turned it down after his New Hampshire and consecutive primary wins. Dems say the funds were used as collateral for the bank loan.

"He used the matching funds to get the money when he needed it,'' said DNC General Counsel Joseph Sandler, reports Bloomberg. "That's the reality of what happened here.''

A federal judge dismissed a similar suit that the Democrats filed in April, saying it was premature. The latest version of the suit should be refiled next week.

The DNC sent an e-mail to supporters saying McCain is "blatantly" breaking campaign finance law, and asks supporters to sign a petition. The e-mail says:

You can put pressure on John McCain to honor his agreement with the FEC by signing your support -- we need 100,000 Americans to stand up and demand that he keep the promise that he made the American people. If we're ever going to have truly clean campaigns, it's going to take all of us fighting for them.

Al Gore came out for Barack Obama last night at a giant rally in Detroit. Some estimates had the crowd at 20,000. The former vice president gave a fairly rousing speech that threatened to overshadow Obama's (where were these oratorical skills back when he was running for president?). Watch for yourself:

What do you think? Does Gore's endorsement mean anything for Obama in the long run?

Al finally gets off the pot...

Just when I thought it was going to be a slow campaign news day, I just heard a report on MSNBC that Al Gore will be endorsing Obama tonight, in person, at a rally in Detroit. The report also states that Gore will request contributors to his Web site, algore.com, so pitch in money as well as time to the Obama campaign.

Obviously, this endorsement would have been better months back, but it can never hurt to have it. I'm not a believer that any single endorsement from any one person can make a difference, but this sort of ties up some loose ends in the march toward party unity.

I'm sure you PUMA's will disagree.