Last month the Obama team managed to barely beat the Romney team in fundraising after trailing them for the last several months. In August, the Obama campaign and related Democratic committees brought in roughly $3 million more than the Republicans.

The American Bankers Association, a trade group for thousands of banks headed by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, voted to start a legal entity for this federal campaign cycle, adding millions of dollars into an already overstuffed election.

The ABA entity would reportedly donate to existing Super PACs, so that the member banks can keep their donations secret.

Aside from the death threats to Todd Akin, the insider account of a Karl Rove fundraiser was enormously revealing. First of all, you get an eye into the Crossroads strategy, and since it promises to have $300 million behind it, it’s a heavy part of the strategy to recapture the White House.

The Obama campaign has recently tried to squeeze their opponent on the issue of education, leading to anomalous situations like Obama criticizing Romney for supporting class size increases that his own Education Secretary agrees with. There is probably a debate to be had between the two campaigns over education, one that comes down mostly to resources. But the philosophy underpinning both sides on education comes from a similar place – the idea that America is slipping behind the rest of the world on education, and that drastic measures must be taken to reverse that trend. Usually these drastic measures fall directly on the heads of teachers and more specifically their unions.

There’s one problem with this scenario – the premise is wrong.

Just to carry over from the last post, Todd Akin will stay in his Senate race in Missouri, saying that he’s received “tremendous grassroots support” over the last 48 hours. That will have to suffice for the time being, however. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has been leading efforts to force Akin out, said in a statement about Akin that “if he continues with this misguided campaign, it will be without the support and resources of the NRSC.”

When you put out an ad that has to state clearly, up front, that “rape is an evil act,” I’d say that should be the end of your political career, but in this case, Todd Akin is clearly making a play for hanging in there in Missouri, with just hours before he needs to make a decision on whether to withdraw.

While I may question the political wisdom of Mitt Romney choosing Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, making the selection public relatively early is a smart move. One of the most valuable assets any political campaign has is the candidate’s time, which is inherently limited. Picking a running mate early is as close a campaign can get to doubling this limited resource.

As I said when this scandal was going on, I don’t think there will be a Susan G. Komen Foundation for too much longer. This demotion just makes me believe that more. The shine on the pink ribbon has completely worn off, with fundraising and major events like their annual walk-a-thon down sharply. The Planned Parenthood controversy really put the spotlight on not only Komen’s politics but also their activities, and how they weren’t really moving toward “the cure” but raising a lot of money to raise their own profile. Women are savvy enough, when presented with the facts, to recognize the fundraising-for-fundraising’s-sake at the heart of the Komen mission.

Once again Mitt Romney’s team has managed to raise significantly more in donations than did President Obama’s campaign during the last month. According to the two campaigns, Romney’s side brought in roughly $25 million more in July than Obama did for his election effort.

Mitt Romney is apparently not having the best time in Britain thus far. But things will get significantly better when he attends a big fundraiser tonight populated by many executives from Barclays Bank, the firm at the heart of the Libor scandal. While Bob Diamond, the former CEO, has dropped out of the event, Patrick Durkin, the top lobbyist at Barclays US operation, is a co-host (and also a major bundler for Romney). All the attendees are US citizens who either live in London or who traveled for the event.