Obama faces challenge to convert huge funds into opinion poll lead

Washington: While the candidates for the White House will spend the next week furiously raising money in advance of their next financial reporting deadline, the man who has raised the most is facing a different challenge: turning that money into a lead in the polls.

Like his fellow contenders, Barack Obama, who led all candidates in both parties by pulling in $58.5 million (Dh214.7 million) over the first six months of the year, will be holding a string of fundraisers this week, before the latest quarterly fundraising deadline of September 30.

But even before the totals are announced some of the donors who have helped raise millions for Obama are beginning to ask when the gap in polls between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will finally begin to narrow.

The first votes in the primary season will be cast in less than four months, and the nomination could be wrapped up in a matter of weeks after that.

"People ask me all the time when I'm raising money: 'What is going on with the polling?'" one member of Obama's national finance committee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the campaign's restriction on committee members speaking to the news media. "He drives out great crowds wherever he goes, but everyone still wonders a little bit if that's going to turn into votes."

Media blitz

Clinton, despite becoming the subject of frequent sniping from her rivals, has shown no signs of faltering. Riding a consistent double-digit lead over Obama in national polls, she embarked on a media blitz yesterday morning, appearing on five of the top network and cable talk shows. She is also ahead in most surveys in the early-voting states, except in Iowa, where the race is tight.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe contended the race should be viewed through the early crucible of Iowa, which remains almost certain to have the first say in the nomination contest despite a shifting campaign calendar.

"I think Iowa is in a different level of engagement than any other state in the country, and what you see there is a very tight three-way contest" among Obama, Clinton and former Senator John Edwards, Plouffe said in an interview. "It's the only place we've advertised in and the place Senator Obama has spent most of his time."