Anybody who have ever raced knows that you have to keep something in reserve for the finish. In 2005, Danica Patrick was poised to win the Indianapolis 500, but had to slow down to conserve fuel--she finished fourth.

I mention it because of this article.

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that in May the campaign had a payroll of about 900, not counting nearly 500 part-time workers who were paid stipends. As of May 31, the Obama campaign staff was well over twice the size of the Bush reelection campaign staff in 2004 and nearly three times the size of McCain's current staff, and has expanded significantly since.

Through the end of May, the Obama campaign had spent $35.7 million on salaries and benefits, triple the $11.9 million spent by the McCain campaign, according to tabulations by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Obama's labor-intensive strategy will become increasingly expensive, though the campaign took a large step toward its goal by raising $52 million in June after wrapping up the Democratic nomination. But it will probably have to exceed that figure every month until November to hit its target, and the Democratic National Committee, which announced that it took in $22.4 million last month, faces a similar task to reach a goal of $180 million by the election.

The Democrats reveled in their fund-raising prowess in 2004 too. Their funding advantage, particularly in 527 cash, was order of magnitudes bigger than for Republicans. You know what happened.

I am actually a little surprised by this, because it seemed, particularly at the beginning of the Obama campaign, that the religious experience would produce an army of disciples motivated by rapture rather than lucre. Its appears that it was all showbiz--Obama, like Kerry is having to pay Democrats to get off their well-padded rear ends to preach the gospel.

I don't expect that to work any better than it did last time.

On the other hand, McCain is failing to inspire the kind of volunteer effort that marked the Bush reelection campaign, or Mitt Romney's 2002 Olympic miracle (conducted almost entirely with volunteers...).

Another reason to name Mitt as his running mate...