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Obama garners $40m in March to put Clinton camp in the shade
Announcements come as new poll shows more than 80 per cent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
- AP
- Published: 00:34 April 5, 2008
Washington: Barack Obama's powerful fundraising machine reaped more than $40 million (Dh146.9m) last month, double what Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign pulled in, as both campaigns prepared to spend heavily ahead of the pivotal Pennsylvania primary vote.
Money is critical in US political campaigns as candidates try to influence voters with expensive television advertising.
The announcements came as a new poll released late on Thursday showed that more than 80 per cent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. The survey is unwelcome news for the likely Republican nominee, John McCain, given the unpopularity of President George W. Bush. However, Democrats control Congress and are not immune from retaliation by unhappy voters.
The volume and trend of donations serve as a key barometer of a candidate's standing, and donors often give more to what they perceive as a winning cause.
Obama gathered less than the record $55 million he banked in February, while the Clinton take for the month was her second best of the campaign, at $34.5 million.
Internet donations
Obama has the highest number of donors contributing $200 or less, a credit to novel use of the internet as a fundraising tool to augment donations from traditional big-money givers.
"We knew that he was going to out-raise us," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said. "He has out-raised us over the last several months." In Burbank, California, where she was raising money, Clinton told reporters on Thursday she had gotten used to being outspent "2-to-1, 3-to-1, 4-to-1, sometimes 5-to-1," but vowed to continue the contest to the August Democratic national convention. Going into Pennsylvania, she is trailing Obama in delegates, popular vote and primary elections won.
The April 22 primary in the northeastern state will determine how many of the state's 158 delegates each candidate takes to the Denver nominating assembly.
A CBS News-New York Times poll released on Thursday showed Obama with 46 per cent national support and Clinton with 43 per cent, within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for registered voters and plus or minus 4 points for Democrats.
Counting on big win
The poll also found that 81 per cent of respondents said they believed "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track" in the country. That's up from 69 per cent a year ago, and 35 per cent in early 2002.
Clinton was counting on a big victory in Pennsylvania to propel her through the nine remaining primaries and caucuses.
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