Decision ‘08

Behind The Kerry Withdrawal…

…was a lack of fundraising success, according to this article by Roger Simon:

As John Kerry just found out, $13 million is sometimes not enough.

That amount, which the senator from Massachusetts still had on hand after running for the presidency four years ago as the Democratic nominee, is only a fraction of what a presidential candidate will need by the fall of this year.

Serious candidates and candidates who want to be serious in 2008 will have to raise more than a million and a half dollars a week in $2,000 increments starting right about now.

And Kerry, who was criticized by many in his party for not running a more vigorous campaign last time, found it tough going.

A source close to Kerry said, “He was calling around Wednesday and Thursday to close advisers and they had talked to donors several times and the money wasn’t going to be there. That coupled with (Barack) Obama-mania, which gave people looking for a Hillary alternative a viable option, is what ended his plans.”

And you really can’t underestimate the fundraising - and that’s why Hillary and McCain remain the frontrunners (and why Rudy must declare soon!), despite the excitement generated by Obama and Giuliani…once you lock in the big money donors, and pledges of support, you start to make your nomination, if not inevitable, at least increasingly likely. If Kerry reached out to big money folks who supported him in 2004, and they declined to do so again, then he did the only thing he could do, giant ego or not…