Obama's Radical New Campaign Strategy

Raise more money!

Last night, Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, sent out a mass email to the millions-strong support list. The header: “We got beat.” Here’s the text:

For the first time in this campaign, we got beat in fundraising.

The Romney campaign and the Republican Party raised more than $76 million last month, compared to our $60 million.

We knew this moment would come when Romney secured the nomination.

What happens next is up to you.

Help close the gap right now -- make a donation of $3 or more.

I want to be clear: We'll always have more people pitching in.

We know that only 15 percent of Romney's May totals came from people giving less than $250, compared to 98 percent in that category for us.

We don't have the special-interest and high-dollar donor advantage that Romney has. Barack Obama has you, and we are bound and determined to fight back on behalf of a country where everyone gets a fair shot and a fair shake.

From the beginning we've built this campaign together, from the bottom up. More people giving a little bit is the only way to compete with a few people giving a lot.

So let's fight like hell and win this thing:

https://donate.barackobama.com/May-Numbers

More coming soon,

Messina

Jim Messina

Campaign Manager

Obama for America

P.S. -- Together, our team raised more than $60 million in May -- even more impressive when you hear that the average donation was about $55. Check out the rest of our numbers.

This is a bizarre email, to say the least. Obama’s greatest edge in his re-election campaign is his aura of inevitability. For months, we’ve been hearing about Obama’s phenomenal fundraising machine, his invincible on-the-ground team. And this week, that aura took a pounding.