Mitt Romney's warning signs

Townhall Staff

Jul 06, 2011 1:55 PM Jul 06, 2011

Opinion

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Mitt Romney has spent the past few months shoring up his position as the Republican presidential front-runner, and the news today that he raised $18.25 million helps confirm that he’s still the man to beat.

In the time since Romney formed a presidential exploratory committee, however, there have also been a number of signs that the man to beat remains extremely beatable. Here are a few of them:

• His fundraising quarter wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a tour de force either. Raising $18.25 million puts Romney way ahead of the GOP pack but behind Romney’s own 2007 performance in his first quarter as a declared candidate. It's half what George W. Bush raised during his first quarter in 1999 and well below Romney's own initial goals. A bigger number from Romney — north of $30 million — would have shown that he was on his way to cornering the market on major-donor support. As it is, he can’t come close to saying that.