Fund not sun for Obama in South Florida

Candidate Barack Obama lamented his staff's refusal to allow him a round of golf or some beach time in South Florida during his fundraising visit there Sunday.

"Every time I come to Florida, I meet wonderful people and have a wonderful time, and it's always too short," he said. "I keep on thinking that I should be able to bring my golf clubs down and my swimming trunks and somehow my staff doesn't let me do that."

Obama is expected to attend a series of fundraising events in South Florida including some in swank private homes.

Barack leads Thompson who leads Hillary

A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that potential Republican candidate Fred Thompson slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton by 44 to 43 percent (statistical tie).

However, Barack Obama clearly leads Thompson by 49 to 37 percent.

Grassroots support vs. Machine money

Barack Obama refuses to accept funds from lobbyists and political action committees -- two traditionally strong political contributors. The decision was part of Obama's campaign to bring a new politic to Washington.

Instead, Obama depends on grassroots action -- volunteer time and work -- to offset the loss in hard cash. To be sure, Barack has his share of wealthy donors, but these are mostly considered "outsiders." More likely most of Obama's funds will consist of a large number of relatively small donations similar to the pattern seen in the Howard Dean campaign.

For the Obama campaign, one of the big challenges will be to leverage the huge popular support of their candidate in ways other than simple cash donations. Many of the senator's supporters are too young to offer much monetary help, but they can work if provided enough bottled water.

Organizing the throngs of Obamaites is now mostly a do-it-yourself thing and will remain so until later in the campaign when the voters are thinking about their choices.

at official barackobama.com website