The media will not hype it, but the Obama re-election effort is on track to fail at raising the promised billion dollars for his re-election campaign.  After it's hard to raise money when you look like a loser and part of your base is alienated. Although news reports credit him with $70 million in the most recent quarter, that includes money raised by the DNC. His own campaign only got $42 million, nowhere what he needs to hit a billion. William Jacobson examines the latest data and makes some shrewd observations.

Obama raised $42 million for his campaign in the third quarter, plus another $27.3 million for the DNC.  Naturally, the top line $70 million joint number is being hyped. (snip)

• Obama is nowhere near on track to raise the $1 billion he wants for his campaign.
• Obama's $42 million haul is less than the $50 million George W. Bush raised in the third quarter of 2003, the comparable time period.
• The high campaign number of donors and low average donation numbers does not reflect wide support, but gimmicks like the $3 dinner raffle.