Hillary grabs the headline with the announcement that she raised 26 million dollars in the quarter for her war chest. With ten million transfered from her Senate campaign, she's sitting pretty on a pile of cash.

Nevertheless, her rivals aren't cowed, and neither should they be--the Edwards campaign raised 14 million, and while Obama hasn't reported, its likely to be in the 20 million range. The future also-rans are in the low single digit millions.

While the announcement helps with Clinton's strategy of "inevitability" (10 million was raised in the final 10 days of the quarter...), the reality is that there is a point of diminishing return for campaign money, where more money doesn't in fact get you more votes. I suspect that Clinton's prolifigate spending during her Senate reelection campaign was an effort to test those limits. Still--she had 10 million left over.

Considering her inherent personal and political deficits, all her rivals have to do is raise money up to the point of diminishing returns and they'll fight for the nomination on other grounds.

Not surprisingly, a relatively small proportion of Hillary's war chest comes from the little people. The Post reports slightly more than 4 million raised from the Internet in small donations. The news tracks with the perception that Hillary is tapping the well-developed Clinton network of high-rollers but isn't overwhelming popular with the rank-and-file. Nevertheless, as a portion of total funds raised, Hillary outpaced Edwards 16% to 10% in small internet donations. Edwards internet donations were assisted by sympathy contributions in the wake of wife Elizabeth's announcement of a cancer relapse.

The more interesting comparison will be with Obama's internet fund-raising totals. As the charismatic candidate, his small-donation totals are the one's to watch.