Politics

A Ray of Hope

Why today was a good day for Barack Obama.

Every day until the election, Slate will offer up one reason to be optimistic for your candidate.

29 days to go:

Today’s Good News for Obama: After consistently outspending and out-advertising Romney for weeks, Obama managed to bring in a record $181 million over the month of September, thanks largely to grass-root donations. Ninety-eight percent of those contributions consisted of $250 or less, and only 16 percent of Obama’s donor base has maxed out its contribution limit this cycle. (Compare that to Romney’s donors, of whom more than half have already reached their limit.) Meanwhile, conservative super PACs are largely shifting their fundraising away from the presidential campaign and toward Senate races. The new haul leaves Obama with a massive war chest to draw from as he defends his narrow lead over the next month, and his fundraising pace shows no sign of slackening. For all the Democratic panic over Citizens United and super PACs, Obama and the Democrats may outspend Republicans in 2012.

See Barack Obama’s earlier rays of hope.

See Mitt Romney’s earlier rays of hope.