Money, money everywhere

If the election were held tomorrow and the outcome were based on campaign funds raised rather than votes cast, Barack Obama would win in a landslide.

Federal reports released this week show the president brought in more than $86 million in the second quarter of this year - better than double the combined amount raised by nearly the entire field of GOP would-be challengers.

This may be good news for Democrats and bad news for Republicans in 2012, but it's worse news for advocates of campaign reform who object to the vast sums of private funds required to run for the highest public office in the land.

"The best and most comprehensive reform is voluntary public financing of all federal elections where candidates have strong incentives to replace private money with public funding," says the national advocacy group Public Citizen.

We agree, and are particularly troubled about prospects for such reform following last year's stunningly ill-considered U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002. The court ruled that federal law regulating the financing of political campaigns violated corporations' and unions' First Amendment rights - a specious claim that opened the floodgates to a torrent of campaign cash from donors tied to special interests.

The president is understandably eager to distance himself from any such connections, and his campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters Wednesday the money raised to date came from 552,462 individuals, with 98 percent donating $250 or less.

He also noted that more than 260,000 of the donations came from individual new donors who did not contribute to the Obama campaign in 2008 - which could be more bad news for Republicans.

Among GOP contenders, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney led the pack with $18.3 million, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, $4.5 million; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, $4.2 million; former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, $4.1 million, including $2 million of his own money; businessman Herman Cain, $2.5 million; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, $2 million; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, less than $2 million.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has not yet reported her campaign donations; former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has not yet said whether she will seek the Republican nomination.

President Obama has another advantage, in that unlike Republicans, he won't have to spend any money on primaries.

In the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama and his GOP challenger, Arizona Sen. John McCain, spent a total of more than $1 billion - an unprecedented sum that likely will be eclipsed during next year's race.

Both candidates then avoided tapping into public campaign funds, realizing they would then have to agree to spending limits.

This almost certainly will be the case again in 2012, especially in light of last year's Supreme Court decision.

Sadly, the private campaign donations will keep rolling in, while the public gets short-changed.