Day: March 6, 2008

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama raised a record $55 million in February for his presidential campaign, eclipsing rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s own substantial fundraising for the month. All told, Obama has raised $193 million during his yearlong bid for the White House.

The campaign’s announcement Thursday came two days after Obama lost three out of four primaries to Clinton. Clinton’s victories stopped his winning streak and extended the race into an unpredictable future.

Obama’s February total was his second fundraising record. He raised $36 million in January, more than any other presidential candidate who has ever been in a contested primary.

Just as the up-and-down campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton appears on the verge of regaining momentum, bickering and dissension among senior staff threatens to implode her quest for the Presidency.

Controversial pollster and self-styled “chief strategist” Mark Penn stands in the midst of mounting internal strife that blunts even the enthusiasm of Tuesday’s three-out-of-four wins in primaries.

Most of Clinton’s top advisors want Penn fired but the blunt-talking Penn still enjoys the ear of both Bill and Hillary Clinton and, for the moment at least, that’s all he needs.

Still, the internal warfare continues and hampers the campaign’s efforts to regoup and focus on the all-important primary in Pennsylvania in less than seven weeks.

Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday that her primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island had reordered the Democratic presidential race in her favor. A resilient Barack Obama countered with fresh pledges of support from superdelegates and said his lead remained intact.

One day after his worst showing in a month, Obama blamed negative attacks by the former first lady for his defeats and quickly made good on a promise to sharpen his criticism of her.

Officials in Michigan and Florida are showing renewed interest in holding repeat presidential nominating contests so that their votes will count in the epic Democratic campaign.

The Michigan governor, along with top officials in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign and Florida’s state party chair, are now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June. That’s a change from their previous insistence that the primaries their states held in January should determine how the their delegates are allocated.

After the smoke cleared, there were still three presidential candidates left standing — two who rose from the dead and one who came out of nowhere.

But Tuesday’s round of primaries that were supposed to settle the race settled it only for John McCain, who locked up the Republican nomination and then went to the White House for a laying-on of hands and an official blessing from President Bush. Given Bush’s popularity ratings, one has to wonder how many more of these joint appearances we’ll be seeing.