more cynical take:

Aides note the huge number of individual donors who gave to Obama’s campaign — a record 4 million. But only 25 percent of the money came from small donors who gave $200 or less, according to the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute in Washington.

My response: True, but 68% gave $2,300 or less. Not exactly the big money, high-rolling donor base, is it?

Reuters continues:

Obama will inevitably lose many of the individual donors who backed him four years ago, said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College and expert on campaign fundraising.

“That’s something that we’re not going to see this time around, that level of excitement about the Obama candidacy that we saw last time, from people who are not traditional donors or traditional Democratic primary voters,” he said.

Maybe. Maybe not. I think these folks are a little bit quick to write off the Democratic base, which may not be starry-eyed about their President but who might be white-hot furious over the Republicans' overreach since November, 2010.

We know what's at stake here. Whether President Obama has disappointed us or met expectations, he's a far sight better than the alternative. I don't know about you, but the idea of President Pawlenty gives me the heebie-jeebies. Vice-President TeaBircher doesn't do much for me either.

Let's just see how it all rolls out. In the meantime, John King's fantasy life is really best left off my TV screen.