Obama's campaign has taken to begging for dollars. What if he runs out of money before the election???

<<<<<<  Next,  this bunch will be panning for gold,  having bake sales and mounting a collection campaign centered in the "garage sale" industry.  Geeeesh. 

So, how bad are things when a campaign, a national campaign,  goes begging for money?    In this case,  we are talking about the Obama campaign and its decision to ask folks to forgo wedding gifts as newly weds are reminded to request gifts be redirected to the Obama Campaign in the form of dollar donations. 

Understand that Obama's SuperPac,  Priorities U.S.A., has collected 6 million to date,  while Karl Rove's SuperPac, Crossroads,  has garnered 29.8 million dollars.  In 2008,  Wall Street gave more to Obama than McCain.  This year,  through April, donations from the Street have totaled 5 million dollars to Obama and 30 million to the Romney campaign.  One final donor disappointment for Obama is the fact that the unions have told his campaign they intend to give most of their $400 million dollars to local campaigns,  not to the national effort.  

The so-called "burn rate" is another interesting factor.  This "burn rate" is the ratio of money collected versus money spent.  The burn rated for Romney is close to 23%  at last word while Obama's burn rate is approaching 70%.  In other words,  Romney is saving his money for use later in the campaign,  while Obama is spending money almost as fast as he can collect it,  in the hopes of defining both the campaign and Romney.  He is desperate to move the campaign away from his record.  Obama understands that he must make this election cycle about Romney and the dirty rotten Republicans.   

Here is the dilemma facing the Obama campaign, as things stand at this moment.  Both Democrat and Republican conventions are at or near the end of August,  leaving September and October reserved for the campaign proper.  If Obama goes into that nine week period with a third of the cash total of Romney and the economy is as bad as everyone predicts,  this election will be as one-sided as the Carter re-election effort.  More than this,  if he increases his burn rate in the last two months of the campaign,  which he surely will,  he just might run out of money,  for all practical purposes.  Wouldn't that be funny?