The Small Dollar Campaign Money Gulf

Everyone tracks the presidential candidates campaign finance reports, but only rarely do we look behind the totals. On Friday, the Campaign Finance Institute put out a stark analysis of presidential fundraising so far this cycle. Some of the highlights, or lowlights, depending on your party affiliation:

1. As we know, Democrats are raising far more money than Republicans. Through the end of February, Barack Obama had $197.3 million in total receipts. Hillary Clinton had $173. 9 million. John McCain had $66.4 million. The biggest Republican money raiser, Mitt Romney, still trailed the Democrats, raising $111 million.

2. More important than the total numbers are the donor stats. 41 percent of Obama's money came from contributors who gave $200 or less. 26 percent of Clinton's money came from the same category of low-dollar contributors. McCain got just 13 percent of his money from the low-dollar crowd. The good thing about low-dollar givers is that they can give again and again, without reaching the contribution limits.

3. By contrast, wealthy donors max out early on the limits. This is a more problematic for McCain, because 43 percent of his money came from donors who have given his campaign at least $2,300. By contrast, Obama took just 23 percent of his money from high-end donors. Clinton, looking far more like McCain, has taken 38 percent from that crowd. (Donors can give a total of $4,600 by maxing out donations for the primary and the general campaign.)

The conclusion: McCain's finance staff has its work cut out for it.