"There are two Americas. Those that will give me money, and those who won't."
Posted on 06/24/2007 12:49:26 PM PDT by Libloather
Edwards predicting big second-quarter drop-off
By Sam Youngman
June 22, 2007
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) is expecting a significant drop-off in campaign contributions for the second quarter that might look like a pittance compared to the dollar amounts Democratic rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) are expected to raise.
Though it would not be unheard of for a campaign to try and lowball its fundraising expectations, an e-mail to supporters from senior adviser Joe Trippi, of Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign, tells Edwards’s fans the campaign is two-thirds of the way to its goal of $9 million for the quarter.
That would give Edwards a $6 million rake with nine days to go. And even then, the campaign would realize $5 million less than it did in the first quarter.
An Edwards campaign official said the goal for the campaign from the outset has been to raise $40 million total to compete in the first four primary or caucus states.
“We were never going to raise $25 million in the second quarter,” the aide said, alluding to the giant sums expected of Clinton and Obama. “They’re pretty much more based on their celebrity. We are based on the early four states strategy, and we need $40 million to do that.”
The dollar decrescendo is nothing new to Edwards. In 2003, Edwards was the talk of Washington after raising $7.4 million in the first quarter, which was a lot of money back then. But in the second quarter, he reported raising $4.5 million.
“This is not about out-raising our opponents in a meaningless fundraising arms race,” Trippi said in the e-mail to supporters. “This is about executing our plan — raising enough money to push our message in the critical early states and building our operation around the country.”
Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) told reporters after he first entered the race to wait and watch his second-quarter numbers instead of his first.
A senior adviser to his campaign said that risky strategy came through, and they expect to report more this time around than the $6.2 million they reported after March. And all of that money will be primary election donations.
An aide to Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said the senator’s campaign was expecting to raise around the same amount as the $2.1 million he raised in the first quarter, which he combined with just under $2 million from his Senate reelection funds.
Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) campaign declined to comment on its expectations. Dodd raised about $4 million in the first quarter, which he complemented with $4.7 million from his Senate reelection chest.
Yep 2 Americas. Which one does he live in?
I know it’s old news but the Kerry/Edwards ticket got only 44% of the vote in his home state of North Carolina. And his being southern didn’t pull over any southern states to the ticket. I never understand just who or where is his political base? and never understand why Kerry picked him as Veep. As we see he sure didn’t help the ticket carry any states.
The scary thing about Edwards, of all of the candidates who originate from the legislative branch, he has the highest ACU rating.
John Edwards is keeping a good eye on fundraising efforts an poll numbers. I think that once it gets closer to the primaries and it’s clear he hasn’t a snowball’s chance, he will withdraw in order to “support his wife through her ordeal.” That way, he gets the sympathy of the naive, and avoids the taint of being a two-time loser. Anyone want to make a wager with me?
I hate to think this about anyone, but he probably jumped up and clicked his heels when Elizabeth’s cancer came back, because it gave him a Plan B.
Ditto.
He should have dropped out of the public limelight the minute his wife’s diagnosis was reported, if he were any man at all.
Absolutely. The man is a selfish SOB.
His “Southerness” didn’t pull over anyone because Kerry was at the top of the ticket. People don’t vote for Vice-Presidents, they vote for Presidents. Now, they might actually vote against a ticket because of who the VP is (I think 2000 was a case of this), but they’ll never vote for it.
I am convinced Edwards is going to win, because well, Edwards is worth a hell of a lot more money than Hillary or Obama, you may criticize how he earned it, I certainly do, but the fact is, he did work for his money, and Edwards is a much more dangerous opponent than you realize. I am under the impression he has a nine-figure net worth, what this means is, unlike say, Hillary or Obama, he can self finance a large portion of his campaign. Kerry actually forwent federal funding in 2004. At one point, he had taken out a mortage against his house to keep the campaign alive.
Edwards is going to be our opponent, and the only way we can beat him is if we have our own Southerner at the top of the ticket.
Two groups: plaintiff's attorneys, and liberal Jews from Broward County who would punch a ballot for Pat Buchanan if they thought he was the democrat candidate.
That may be, but........when Mrs. Wallace died, it helped out George in ‘68, and to a degree, it was helping him in ‘72 before he got shot, even after he had married his new wife.
I doubt the lack of fundraising has anything to do with his wifes cancer, and if you read the same article I did, you’d see that he still outraised everyone else. I suspect Edwards is going to come back on top with an idea from Chris Dodd. Edwards can’t be the darling of liberal college students because well, he’s not an Ivy Leaguer and he actually talks about work. Obama is the liberal student candidate. What Edwards has to do is come up with a proposal to convince rank and file labor types still in the party to go with him, and I think he’ll steal an idea from Dodd and Biden in form of the national service crap.
National Service is going to be a big issue in this election, and I think that will be Edwards ticket to the nomination.
Time for another announcement of illness in opie’s family.
Go Ron Paul! :-)
John Edwards is a “Two Time Loser, Runnin’ Out of Juice!”
Actually, he and Hillary have reported about the same net worth — $51,000,000. Bill brings in a boatload to the Clinton household.
Oh stop it! Edwards could not even get re-elected as Senator in his own state.
John Edwards said the war on terror was a “bumper sticker slogan” So John, here is a bumper sticker for you:”Edwards believes in Two America’s Neither is giving money to him.”
North Carolina is not a monolith for the whole South, and actually, while conventional wisdom says he would have been defeated for re-election, that’s actually a question that can never be successfully answered becuase well, he never ran for re-election.
It’s not North Carolina I’m worried about. It’s Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, and even Virginia. Northern Virginia is actual national Democratic, and that state has become a more razor thin margin with each election. West Virginia is still the biggest union state in this country, Bush won by the hair of his teeth in 2000 and in 2004 he had the benefit of having a yankee elitest at the top. West Virginia is by no definition a Republican state. Arkansas is actually a Democratic state, the state’s business community still gives more to Democrats than Republicans as a rule. If Gore had been running against a Northerner, he would have narrowly won his home state, Arkansas and probably West Virginia, and hence, the election. Gore also probably might have just squeaked by if he had not picked a CT Jew as his running mate. In general, a Democratic voter is more likely to be anti-Semitic than a Republican voter, and that hurt Gore
It was hard to peg Clinton as a liberal because he took enough moderate stances that, when combined with well, his accent and background, against northern opponents, allowed him to hold states like Louisiana. Now, given certain changes in Louisiana, it’s highly unlikely the Democrats can win that state presidentially unless Breaux runs.
Or to put it another way, Bush became President in 2000 because of what state he was from, and his accent, because all logic said, 2000 should have been a Democratic year, because we had not had the economic shocks yet, nor 9/11 or anything else.
I also have a particular concern about South Carolina. Now, all logic says South Carolina is not at risk at all. Of the all the Deep South states, it was the first with a Republican legislature. But, it still kept electing Fritz, and they always have a few Democratic statewide officials, like their education commissioner. And the other reason I worry....what had once been the lynchpin of Republican strategy in South Carolina, Charleston County. Bush only beat Kerry by 3 points in Charleston County, and I suspect without the old money in downtown Charleston, he would have lost it. The Democratic candidate against DeMint in 2004 won Charleston County. The other thing with South Carolina is that NAFTA absolutely killed the economy in that state. It used to be entirely textile based, and well, those jobs are all gone. Then the people who held all those jobs went to work for the video poker parlors, and then the state supreme court took those away, at one point in the early part of the decade, some former textile counties had unemployment rates approaching 20%
Edwards may be a liberal on say abortion, but, he’s actually never really taken a strong stand either way on guns, and well, to alot out of uneducated, out of work, textile workers, he may be able to articulate a message that can sell to them.
He is dangerous, and as for Obama, only reason Obama is doing well is because the white vote is split right now, and that number actually means trouble for him, because the SC presidential primary is about 50% black. If he’s only polling 33% and you assume he has some white support, that means at best, he may only have half of the black vote.
I still say Edwards is the toughest opponent and we should assume he will be nominee.
Yep!
However, we are also infested with illegals, and the voters are starting to get pissed off.
A colleague at work told me about how she heard an "older" gentleman talking with the sales clerk at a local auto shop about "the illegals taking over" in a not-so-nice way, and mind you, this was in Fairfax County, a liberal cesspool.
Maybe folks figure he should just use some of his pirate booty....
I think Edwards would be trouble as well. I thought he would be more prominent at this point, however. It seems his message is a bit too “third world.” What I mean, is that it seems his main campaign theme is taking on abject poverty, which in the states, really isn’t an issue for 95% of the country. Moreover, people in abject poverty tend not to vote.
Despite what the MSM would have us believe, the middle class in the US has never been stronger...he should be targeting them with a message — not a “Two Americas, Hey look at me I work for the Southern Poverty Law Center” schtick.
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