OBAMA: The BILLION-Dollar Man

by **J The Kidd** Wed Dec 03, 2008 3:38 pm

Nearly two years ago, Barack Obama muscled his way into the top tier of presidential contenders by breaking fundraising records.

When the 2008 campaign books are closed, the Democratic president-elect
will shatter another record by coming close to, or capturing, the title
of the first billion-dollar candidate

The vast majority of the donations were generated during the unusually
long primary and general election campaigns. A financial disclosure
report scheduled to be released Thursday is expected to show that Obama
raised more than $100 million in the final month of the campaign,
campaign aides said.

That will bring the grand total for his campaign to more than $750
million — more than the combined sum raised by President George W. Bush
and his Democratic rival, John F. Kerry, in the record-setting 2004
campaign and nearly as much as the total raised by all the presidential
contenders then.