Obama's Campaign Donations Fall Short of '08 Levels?

Hm. It’s as if the Democratic presidential field (of one) is weak:

Contributions to Obama and the Democratic National Committee combined were down 30 percent last month compared with January four years ago. Together they raised $29.1 million in January. That is down from $41.7 million in January 2008.

Soon after last month’s fund-raising results were in, the president changed positions and encouraged contributions to his so-called super PAC, a fund-raising tool he previously shunned. The campaign did not answer directly when asked whether the sluggish fund-raising may have prompted Obama’s call for contributions to Priorities USA Action, which can accept unlimited contributions from individual supporters or corporations. Without that encouragement, the super PAC raised just $59,000 in January.

Camp O’s excuse seems to be that it was engaged in a fight with Hillary at the time, but that fight also divided up the fundraising pie between his and Hillary’s campaigns. He faces no such math this time around.

Oddly, all that unemployment money the administration keeps throwing around isn’t stimulating his campaign’s economy.

To drum up interest, the Obama campaign keeps pimping the president out, as in this email pitch that went out today:

Friend —

Tonight at midnight, we’re picking the first winner of the upcoming dinner with President Obama.

We’re doing things differently this time — every couple weeks, we’re selecting one more winner.

That means your chances of sitting across from the President sometime soon truly won’t get any better than they are right now, before any of the slots fill up.

So pitch in $2 or whatever you can before midnight tonight, and you’ll be automatically entered for that chance…

And it doesn’t seem to be working. The raffle’s tackiness may be one reason. The lack of genuine enthusiasm to re-elect the campaigner in chief is likely a larger one.