Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

The Politico has a piece out today on Fred Thompson's first month of fund-raising, and portrays it as disappointing that he only raised $3 million. But, wait. They're comparing apples to oranges. A source inside the Thompson pre-campaign provides this perspective:

Thompson raising more than $3 million in his first month is "a sizable amount for someone who hasn't been running since 1999," my source points out. "Unfortunately, people are comparing this to active candidates, when the appropriate comparison is to equivalent exploratory periods."

Here's the comparison info  In his first exploratory month, Thompson raised well over $3 million - more than ten times what Rudy Giuliani raised in his first "exploratory" month and more than three times what McCain raised during his first month.

Giuliani raised just $258,660 in his first month, Nov. 15-Dec. 15, 2006.

McCain raised $1,130,351 in his first month, first month, Nov. 14-Dec. 14.

Romney raised more money in his first month, but largely because he organized his big-dollar donors ahead of time to give himself a bit splash and he "loaned his committee at least $850,000 weeks before filing his statement of candidacy on Jan. 3."

By comparison,  Thompson's first month of fundraising is quite impressive. And , it's worth noting, all that money that Giuliani, McCain and Romney raised in their first month has already been spent.

Now, consider how the Left has spun Thompson's fundraising.

Under FEC rules, a pre-candidate is not allowed to raise funds "in excess of what could reasonably be expected to be used for exploratory activities," and yet one month there in The Politico a month ago was the Democratic National Committee attacking Fred alleging he was potentially raising more money than he’d need for the exploratory period. The DNC rolled out the same hit piece at the leftwing DailyKos.com claiming that Thompson was "Raising Funds Beyond What You Need To 'Explore'" and, via ABC News, we heard the liberal activist outlet CREW alleging that Thompson "appears to have raised far more money than necessary…"

My inside source notes that Thompson, just four weeks after being attacked for raising "too much" money, is now being attacked for not spending his entire Exploratory focus on raising money.

Too much, it seems, is not enough.

Thompson, incidentally, has not spent most of his money, the way McCain has, according to my source, who says, "So far we've utilized no direct mail or telephone fundraising, and we have a burn rate below 20 percent - far below the other candidates."

Those who suggest that Thompson is far behind in fundraising because the others started early forget that Thompson is also "far behind" them in the amount of donors' cash he's already spent - and yet he is one of the top candidates in the field. The others obviously haven't gotten much for their money, and to the extent that money came from donors who have maxed out, they now find themselves having to find new donors in order to keep their faltering campaigns going.

In terms of getting the biggest bang for the buck, Thompson is far and away the leader of the GOP field. He's not even officially running, has spent very little, and yet is the leader or co-leader of the race