Realignment II

Reason Magazine’s blog has some sobering numbers that will give a lot of conservatives pause:

Four years ago George W. Bush released his fundraising numbers for the third FEC quarter: $49.5 million. This week the top four Republicans released their numbers:

Rudy Giuliani - $11 million
Mitt Romney - $10 million
Fred Thompson - $9.3 million
John McCain - $6 million

That’s a combined $36.3 million from the party that holds the White House, compared to $59.2 million from the top four Democrats.

As the Washington Times writes, “Republican presidential fundraising has declined by 27 percent since four years ago, and the Democratic presidential field is outraising Republicans by 63 percent.”

During 2004, Bush raised $367 million to Kerry’s $329 million. In 2008, it’s likely that Hillary will have as much as a 2 to 1 money advantage over her Republican opponent.

It’s really astounding that after Bush was re-elected in 2004, Democrats were fretting about a permanent Republican majority and the need to soften their stances on controversial issues in order to win elections. And now Rudy is on record as saying that the GOP enters 2008 as underdogs. How quickly things change.