Cash crisis for McCain

Patrick Ruffini hits the panic button:

If anyone thinks McCain raising $15 million in March is good news — and crucially, just $4M of it from online and direct mail — then they’re probably part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
What stands out from the announcement is the sense that they’ve thrown in the towel when it comes to fundraising for John McCain 2008. . . .
This suggests that they not only expect to lose the fundraising race, but intend to go down without a fight. How? By relying on the same weakened high-dollar model that fell short for every Republican candidate in the primary. . . .

Why does it mean? Given that Ruffini is a former RNC operative and Web campaign consultant, I think it translates:

"Hey, buddies, how about throwing me a nice contract or two here, huh?"

That might just be my inner cynic talking. However, my inner cynic has a pretty good track record on this kind of stuff. The fact that Ruffini couches his argument in campaign-insider lingo -- his blog post reads like a consultant's report with phrases like "real-time fundraising transparency" -- suggests he's trying to speak directly to the financial-strategy wizards in the McCain campaign brain trust.

BTW, Bob Barr has raised $20,000 going online since Saturday. Not a landslide, but he's not gotten a lot of national media yet, either.

UPDATE: Linked at Memeorandum, which also links several other bloggers commenting on McCain's fundraising.

The news that McCain is lagging badly behind his Democratic rivals -- Obama raised $40 million and Hillary raised $20 million in March --is predictable.

Conservatives tried to warn Republicans against a McCain candidacy. Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter -- all of them have been harshly critical of McCain. Now that McCain has gotten the nomination, Republicans act surprised to discover that conservatives aren't going to give money to a candidate they don't support.