BlogWonks

As I’ve said before, the more people get to know Barack Obama, the less they will like him. That prediction appears to be coming true, as the Obama campaign is now hurting for money.

After months of record-breaking fund-raising, a new sense of urgency in Senator Barack Obama’s fund-raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon it.

Pushing a fund-raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of its national finance committee, calling their recent efforts “extremely anemic.”

At a convention-week meeting in Denver of the campaign’s top fund-raisers, buttons with the image of a money tree were distributed to those who had already contributed the maximum $2,300 to the general election, a subtle reminder to those who had failed to ante up.

Oh, that’s brilliant. Bust the chops of anyone who hasn’t donated the maximum. That’ll be a good way to get them  to fork over more cash!

But the campaign is struggling to meet ambitious fund-raising goals it set for the campaign and the party. It collected in June and July far less from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s donors than originally projected. Moreover, Mr. McCain, unlike Mr. Obama, will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Mr. Obama must do.

Well, duh. You treated Hillary Clinton’s supporters like dog shit stuck to the bottom of your shoe. How could you think they’d open up their check books after that?

David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, said the majority of the Obama campaign’s donors during the primary had yet to write checks for the general election. When they do, he said, it will be the equivalent of the large injection of cash the McCain campaign is receiving from the government — about $70 million or $80 million.

“We’re confident that we will meet our financial goals, but it’s hard work,” Mr. Plouffe said. “We have a long way to go in the next six weeks.”

Dude,  if they haven’t donated money to your campaign by now they probably aren’t going to. And, the fact that McCain and Palin can campaign as they see fit, while Obama and Biden have to continue to try to raise more and  more cash all the way up to Election Day is going to turn out to be a serious problem for the Democratic ticket.