Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

$12.5 million isn't chump change - unless you're Arizona Sen. John McCain, once considered the front-runner for the 2008 Republican nomination and that's all you've raised in the first quarter of the year, while a little-known governor from Massachussets raises nearly twice that, and the former mayor of New York City also did better. USA Today's Jill Lawrence has comments on McCain's lousy fundraising, and second blog post on Mitt Romney's impressive numbers.

Lawrence says with his strong fund-raising, "Romney proved why he's in the top tier." She also links to Julie Mason's blog at the Houston Chronicle, where Mason writes, "Giuliani is leading the polls but not the bank. The campaign dynamic is shifting."