The president breezed by his target of $60 million for the second quarter. Obama's record-smashing $86M haul

President Barack Obama has shattered second quarter fundraising records for a White House incumbent by raising $86 million – a total that dwarfs the 2012 GOP field’s total take for the same period and that was substantially higher than his own target of $60 million.

The shock-and-awe showing was announced by Obama 2012 Campaign Manager Jim Messina, wearing his signature blue dress shirt sans tie, in a web video blasted to supporters in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, two days before the 15,000-page combined Obama for America and Democratic National Committee report is due to go up on a government web site.


“It’s a monumental achievement,” said Messina, who pressed for donations until the last possible minute of the quarter – even offering supporters a chance to win a dinner with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for a $5 donation.

Earlier this month, Democratic fundraising sources close to the campaign told POLITICO that Obama would easily achieve his goal of besting former President George W. Bush’s combined take of $50.1 million at the same point in the 2004 election cycle.

The total amount Obama raised in the first three months of 2011 also amounted to more than twice the $35 million raised collectively by the announced field of Republican presidential candidates. The Republican National Committee has raised an additional $30 million.

Republicans downplayed the numbers, arguing that Obama is simply reaping the financial benefits of incumbency at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work.

“We always knew Obama was the best fundraiser in history,” said RNC press secretary Kirsten Kuklowski. “Unfortunately for Americans, it’s clear that despite his claims that he’s focused on creating jobs, his priority is saving his own. Obama will need every penny of his billion dollars to defend his abysmal economic message.”

The CliffsNotes version of the quarterly report, while impressive on its surface, left out crucial details that will be answered when the full version is posted, including Obama’s cash-on-hand, his expenditures, the names of his bundlers and the comparative amounts raised for the primary period and the general election.

Messina said that most of the primary cash would be used to build statewide organizations, including one in Indiana, despite reports that Team Obama had essentially given up hopes of repeating its 2008 victory there.

He also touted the campaign’s commitment to grassroots organizing, and the fact that the average donation to Obama’s non-DNC account was $69, lower even than the 2008 average contribution. Obama’s campaign organization had come under fire from some on the left who accused it of focusing too heavily on Democratic money players.

“This should end any Washington chatter about whether or not our grassroots base will be engaged. Our supporters are back, they’re energized,” Messina later told reporters on a campaign conference call.

Messina also took pains to lower expectations for the next reporting period, which is likely to feature a much less impressive take.

“We are entering a difficult fundraising environment in the next quarter,” he told reporters. “Many folks tune out from the political process over the summer while they are spending time with their families or are away on vacation. We had some drop off in 2007 during this period and expect that can happen again.”

The former deputy White House chief of staff, who spent much of the spring barnstorming around the country to stoke enthusiasm among big-dollar donors, didn’t immediately provide details on how much money was raised from contributions above $250. Those will be itemized on the Obama Victory Fund report due to be posted by the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

So far, 552,462 people have contributed to the joint committee, a figure Messina described as “more grassroots support at this point in the process than any campaign in political history.”

Officials with Obama’s Chicago-based campaign have downplayed reports that they plan to raise $1 billion by November, 2012, but they have said they hope to match or exceed the approximately $750 million he raised in 2008 – a small-donor fueled, internet-based effort that rewrote the presidential campaign playbook.

Despite the massive haul, Messina still sought to cast the president as a financial underdog, emphasizing Obama’s refusal to take PAC or lobbyist cash – and hitting the GOP on its aggressive third-party fundraising effort in the wake of the Citizens United case.

“It’s going to get tougher from here… GOP outside spending for 2012 will be as much as $500 million… This is a whole new ballgame like we’ve never faced before,” he added.

Correction: An earlier version attributed the fundraising results to the first quarter of 2011. This version has been corrected.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Austin Wright @ 07/13/2011 08:56 PM Correction: An earlier version attributed the fundraising results to the first quarter of 2011. This version has been corrected.