Obama's fund-raising machine leaves Romney in the dust

In aggregate, Obama's reelection vehicles have raised $134 million more than those of Romney to date. We previously noted that in order to catch Obama, Romney had a high mountain to climb. Before August's numbers were announced, we calculated that the GOP nominee would need to raise, in each of the remaining months before the election, $44 million more than his rival. Since Obama raised about $2 million more than Romney in August, the challenge got that much more daunting - in September and October, he'll need to outpace Obama by an average of $67 million.

It's worth noting that September 2008 was Obama's best month for fund-raising, when his campaign committee, the DNC and his joint fund-raising committee collectively reported donations of $202.4 million. That's almost twice as much as Romney reportedly raised in August: $111.6 million.

In the race for money, Romney is in Obama's rearview mirror and losing ground.

We had more to say on the subject to Andy Kroll of Mother Jones. One thing lost in these totals is what they represent. The contributions come with strings attached, whether they're from big bundlers like George Kaiser of Solyndra fame, big donors like Harold Simmons or Jerry Perenchio, or combinations of the two like Jeffrey Katzenberg,