The Asterisk on Romney's Bottom Line

The headline on a Romney campaign press release today was more than a little deceptive:

ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT TOTALS OVER $18 MILLION IN

TOTAL RECEIPTS FOR THE THIRD QUARTER

So Mitt Romney raised over $18 million -- not bad, right? Right -- $18 million raised would put him in range of Hillary and Obama for the third quarter. But that's not what the headline actually says. It says, awkwardly, that the Romney campaign "totals $18 million in total receipts". Confused? As the release goes on to explain, Romney "raised" $10 million in primary dollars in the third quarter. The rest -- $8.5 million -- was "revenue" that arrived in the form of a personal loan Romney made to his own campaign.

The press release also notes that Romney has $9 million cash on hand. Again, not bad. Except when you remember that without that $8.5 million loan from the candidate, the Romney campaign would be just $500,000 in the black.

Of course, Romney raised almost as much as Rudy Giuliani ($10.5 million) in primary campaign dollars in the third quarter. And no other Republican made it into double digits. But it is just another indicator of how much the GOP is struggling in this cycle that one of its top candidates is having to loan himself milions and millions of dollars just to stay competive while the top-tier Democrats are raking in donations.