Support is lower for former New York governor George Pataki, Kansas senator Sam Brownback, Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, Texas congressman Ron Paul, Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson. On Apr. 17, Giuliani commented on the topic of gun control in the aftermath of a violent incident at Virginia Tech University—where a student killed 32 people and himself—declaring, “This tragedy does not alter the Second Amendment.” Giuliani has proposed that handgun buyers “demonstrate good moral character and a reason to have the gun” before being able to purchase one. In American elections, candidates require 270 votes in the Electoral College to win the White House. In November 2004, Republican George W. Bush earned a second term after securing 286 electoral votes from 31 states. Democratic nominee John Kerry received 252 electoral votes from 19 states and the District of Columbia. Bush is ineligible for a third term in office. The next presidential election is scheduled for November 2008.

So far, so good. But he kept going. “Liquefied coal, gosh. Hitler during the Second World War — I guess because he was concerned about losing his oil — liquefied coal. That technology is still there.” There was nothing exactly wrong with what the governor said. He was mostly correct historically; German scientists developed the technology to liquefy coal, and Adolf Hitler used it during the war. And of course Mr. Romney wasn’t endorsing any of Hitler’s less popular policies; but if Hitler was a pioneer in alternative fuels, then bully for him. Still, there was an element of common sense missing from Mr. Romney’s remarks. You know, that little voice that pipes up in a presidential candidate’s head to gently remind him or her: “DON’T MENTION HITLER IN A POSITIVE LIGHT!”

It’s worth noting that this wasn’t Mr. Romney’s first gaffe — not even his first Nazi-related gaffe. He raised eyebrows back in February when he kicked off his presidential campaign at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. Aside from being an industrialist, Ford was also a notorious anti-Semite, awarded the Grand Service Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle by Hitler. There are so many ways to make a fool of oneself on the campaign trail that candidates hardly know which one to pick when they get up in the morning. President Bush was partial to the “just not knowing the answer” technique, such as when he was asked in 1999 to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India, and Pakistan. (He offered “Lee” as the answer on Taiwan; he was probably playing the odds on that one, but managed to come close to naming President Lee Teng-hui.) In the current campaign, Mayor Giuliani has been a big fan of the “unnecessarily antagonizing potential allies” method, such as when he said recently that the Republican Party needs to “get beyond” abortion.

Senator McCain of Arizona has actually come up with a pretty decent way of inoculating himself against embarrassment. He does so many crazy things and cares so little that he’s doing them — singing a song about bombing Iran, to take an example from yesterday — that it all just seems okay. I call this the Demented Grandpa System. Mr. Romney, however, somehow got pegged by the national press as “the smooth one.” They dubbed him Matinee Mitt. Clearly, it’s the hair that fooled them.

In fact, a study of the campaign so far shows that Mr. Romney is the most gaffe-prone of all the Republican candidates. Who could forget earlier this month, when it came out that Mr. Romney, who had described himself as a lifelong hunter, had only hunted twice in his life — and even those times just rabbits and rodents? As the governor put it: “small varmints, if you will.” There was also Mr. Romney’s painful Cuba gaffe, where he mistook a communist slogan for a statement of Free Cuban patriotism.

Heck, I was even in the audience at a small gathering in early March when the governor accidentally insulted his wife. “I feel old,” Ann Romney told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “You are!” her husband chimed in. The crowd winced. “It’s a joke, we’re the same age,” he clarified to the uncomfortable audience.

Political newcomer Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois raised $25.8 million and spent $6.6 million while Republican Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, brought in $20.7 million and spent $11.6 million to gain name recognition. The race for cash has become more critical in this election, expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history, because more states are holding nominating primaries in February 2008 like California and New York. That has forced candidates to set up operations and pay for expensive advertising in many states rather than using momentum from winning the first contests in Iowa or New Hampshire to propel them forward.

“They’ve only got six to nine months because that’s the timetable under which they have to amass the cash needed to start paying for their television and paying for their large scale operations,” said Anthony Corrado, government professor at Colby College in Maine. But hefty bank accounts do not necessarily translate into higher poll numbers. Romney led the Republican field in fund raising but he trails the polls behind former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain. McCain failed to meet expectations of a front-runner, raising only $13 million and spending about $9.5 million, including $1.57 million on salaries. He has already said he would overhaul his campaign operation.

“There are a number of candidates who have now raised large amounts of money and they can invest in the second quarter to continue to build their campaigns,” Corrado said. “They now face a new test, showing that they can sustain the momentum they built in first quarter.” Much of the money raised by candidates came from big names, including Playboy magazine mogul Hugh Hefner, who gave $2,300 to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and financier and Home Depot board member Kenneth Langone, who serves as a finance chairman for Giuliani. Employees at Citigroup donated more than $47,000 to McCain’s campaign, $63,000 to Clinton and $27,000 to Romney, who was also able to tap his old private equity firm Bain Capital for more than $79,000, according to donation reports.

And some contributors gave to multiple candidates. David Geffen, who co-founded DreamWorks Studios, gave the maximum $2,300 contribution to Obama, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd.

First came McCain’s long-awaited speech on Iraq last week, in which he argued that the war must be won and that U.S. troops are making more progress than Americans realize. The intended message was clear-that the former POW is a strong leader who doesn’t sway with the polls. This week, he gives a speech on the economy-calling for tax cuts and spending restraint-to court fiscal conservatives. On April 23, in another major address, McCain will call for an improved energy policy emphasizing market-based solutions. All that’s a prelude to a formal announcement of his candidacy April 25 in New Hampshire, followed by a campaign stop April 26 in South Carolina, where he will participate in the first GOP presidential debate. Then it’s on to Iowa April 27 and Arizona April 28. “He will put down issue markers for his vision, his solutions to the key problems of the country, and talk about the main themes of his campaign,” says Brian Jones, McCain’s communications director.

And none too soon. McCain has faded dramatically from his position as Republican front-runner a year ago. He finished last in fundraising among the top six presidential contenders of the major parties; among Republicans, he placed third, collecting $12.5 million, compared with Mitt Romney’s $21 million and Rudy Giuliani’s $15 million. The numbers caused McCain to reshuffle his fundraising operation to bring in more cash and limit spending. His recent trip to Baghdad became an embarrassment when he claimed that parts of the city were safe to stroll in. He was forced to admit he “misspoke” after TV cameras showed that during his walkabout he was protected by heavily armed U.S. soldiers and helicopter gunships hovering overhead.

Perhaps most ominous, he has been dropping in the polls. The latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times survey found him in third place, with only 12 percent of Republican support. Giuliani had 29 percent; former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is considering a White House run, had 15 percent; and Romney had 8 percent. Many conservatives don’t trust McCain on issues like tax cuts, abortion, and gay rights. He is no longer a fresh face. And to many, he no longer stands for much of anything beyond winning in Iraq.

“Trying to project who will win the campaign or the nominations from the early fundraising totals is unwise,” he said. “What’s more important is the degree to which these numbers will be sustained” in the months ahead. Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said the spending was aimed at “building a national campaign infrastructure” that includes full-time staff in Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and at least four other early primary states. The Romney campaign also spent $1.7 million on advertising, Madden said. “We’re not as well known as Rudy Giuliani,” he said. “A lot of the candidates in this race can sit back on their universal name ID.”

More than 75% of what Giuliani raised in the first quarter came from 36 fundraising events in March, according to his FEC report. Giuliani’s campaign predicts growing momentum. “Our biggest challenge is catching up our organization to the popularity of Rudy,” said Roy Bailey, the campaign’s finance chairman. Campaign manager Mike DuHaime predicted “a March-like (fundraising) pace going forward.” In addition to his fundraising, Giuliani also transferred $1.85 million leftover from his brief 2000 bid for the U.S. Senate.

Many of the candidates in both parties released preliminary fundraising numbers shortly after the first quarter ended March 31. The top six presidential fundraisers so far have raised about $127 milllion, or four times more than was raised for the same period in 2003.

Other details from campaign finance reports filed with the FEC:

Number of donors: Romney received money from more than 32,000 individual contributors, compared to 28,300 for Giuliani.

Spending: Romney spent about $11.6 million in the first three months of the year to build his campaign infrastructure and boost his name recognition outside of Massachusetts and Utah, where he is best known. Giuliani spent $5.7 million, and has $89,000 in campaign debt.

Top states: Giuliani’s home state of New York was the source of more than $3 million, his reports show. His other top sources of campaign donations were California and Texas. All three states are typically large sources of campaign cash.

Romney said he collected the most from donors in California, Utah and Massachusetts. Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and has talked openly of courting fellow Mormons in Utah and other states.

Famous donors: Giuliani, a New York Yankees fan, received $4,600 on March 23 from the baseball club’s owner, George Steinbrenner. That is the maximum an individual can donate. Giuliani also received $2,100 from actor Adam Sandler and $2,300 from designer Vera Wang, who created the dress that Giuliani’s wife, Judith, wore at their 2003 wedding.

Romney tapped a network of business leaders in the investment banking community, where he worked before going into politics. Fellow Mormons Jon Huntsman, the father of Utah’s governor, and members of the Marriott family, founders of the hotel chain, each gave $2,300. Former Boston Celtics star and now team executive Danny Ainge and his wife, Michelle, gave $4,600.

Romney also had support from fellow governors, including $2,100 from his New England neighbor and fellow Republican, Gov. Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island.

That said, Romney is still fighting to gain name recognition. Though he spent more than $1.8 million in ads to publicize his face in key states, polls still place him in third or fourth place, trailing Republicans who aren’t even in the race. Giuliani is leading in the polls, buttressed by his image for unflappability after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. But his donor base is the smallest among the leaders and his spending, off to a late start this year, could catch up to his donor income as the campaign progresses. McCain is looking to improve. After spending more on staff than Romney or Giuliani did, he is now cutting his payroll

No matter how non-life threatening his form of the disease may be, the very word “cancer” when applied to anyone, especially a presidential candidate, raises all kinds of doubts in the public’s mind. Those doubts, even if totally unjustified, are very hard to erase from the public’s consciousness.

Assuming that his rugged appearance and obvious good health manage to allay public uneasiness about his cancer, once he successfully climbs that wall — like the bear that climbed the mountain only to face other mountains — Fred Thompson will have to surmount a series of other high barriers.

To begin with, there’s the matter of money. It’s commonly understood that it takes something like $100 million just to get into the race and stay there, and the top GOP candidates have been out beating the bushes and shaking the money trees for a long time and they’ve soaked up a lot of the ready cash.

As of now, Fred Thompson hasn’t raised one red cent and can’t begin to until he becomes a candidate or forms one of those silly exploratory committees.

Then there’s the matter of putting together a campaign staff of skilled political operatives, and then organizing the needed army of grassroots workers in the primary states required to identify and recruit voters and get them to the polls. It’s a massive job, sort of like organizing something as extensive as the Normandy invasion – and Thompson is no Eisenhower.

Assuming Thompson can get over this obstacle and is able to organize at the grass roots, he is still facing the need to get out there in all those primary states and carry the flag of his candidacy. There is no way he can rely on his obvious charisma to substitute for being on the scene. And the fact that overwhelming numbers of primary states are having their primaries on the same day next February imposes a huge burden on all the candidates they can’t shrug off. They have to be there and highly visible.

Fred Thompson all but shrugged off that burden when he appeared on Neil Cavuto’s show Wednesday, implying that his solid conservative message and his high profile and charisma could substitute for his physical presence.

Where have I heard that before? Oh, I know – it was in 1980, during the crucial Iowa primary caucuses. My father, Ronald Reagan, was an obvious absentee candidate. His top advisers convinced him that his presence in that key state was not really necessary – after all, he was a major celebrity with charisma radiating out of every pore in his body. He could simply rise above the battle by staying off the battlefield.

Unlike my dad, I was there and I saw at first hand how much his campaign was suffering from his absence. My fears were totally justified when George Bush, who was all over the place, beat my father hands down. After that, he fired those campaign advisers and went out and beat the bushes and in the end won the nomination.

I hope Thompson doesn’t take the advice of those supporters yearning for a new Ronald Reagan; that he has a leg up on all the other candidates thanks to his Reaganesque qualities. There was only one Ronald Reagan, and he’s no longer around. America needs a president who is his own man and knows who and what he is.

Maybe Fred Thompson fits that description, but he has a long way to go and a lot of hills to climb before he even gets as far as the Republican nomination.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s newest book, “Twice Adopted.” E-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.

“A campaign is like any business. It’s dynamic,” a spokesman, Danny Diaz, said yesterday. “The McCain campaign is taking necessary steps to make sure we are as effective and efficient as possible.” The moves come as the campaign is preparing to file its first-quarter financial disclosure statement to the Federal Election Commission this weekend, a report that is expected to show Mr. McCain with less money available than either of his two top Republican rivals, Mayor Giuliani and a former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney. In fund-raising totals announced last week, Mr. McCain came in third with $12.5 million, despite entering the race as a front-runner for the nomination. Mr. Giuliani reported raising about $15 million, while Mr. Romney led all GOP hopefuls with $23 million, which included a $2.35 million personal loan.

Top advisers to Mr. McCain acknowledged that the total was less than they had hope for and soon announced plans to reorganize the campaign. Mr. Diaz said the staff moves occurring now were part of that plan. The campaign’s fund-raising struggles have not helped Mr. McCain’s standing in the polls. A new Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll shows him dropping to third place in the Republican field, behind Mr. Giuliani and a former Tennessee senator, Fred Thompson, who has not even entered the White House race. Mr. Giuliani led with 29% of probable GOP primary voters nationwide, followed by Mr. Thompson with 15% and Mr. McCain with 12%. Mr. Romney, whose strength in fund raising has yet to translate into higher national poll numbers, was fourth with 8%.

The survey of 437 Republicans, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5%, was taken before Mr. Thompson disclosed Wednesday that he had lymphoma that was in remission. The disclosure was seen in political circles as an indication that the “Law & Order” star was serious about mounting a presidential bid. The poll also served as notice that should he run, Mr. Thompson would almost certainly enter the top tier of candidates, surpassing conservative contenders such as Senator Brownback of Kansas and a former Arkansas governor, Michael Huckabee, who have struggled to gain traction in fund raising and in opinion polls. That could put even more pressure on Mr. McCain, making it more difficult for him to jump-start his campaign.

Yet while Mr. McCain has surely lost his front-runner status, he can take some comfort in recent GOP history. In 1996, Bob Dole was a party favorite who ran into difficulty before ultimately capturing the nomination. And in 2000, the establishment pick was President Bush, who overcame an inspired challenge from Mr. McCain himself to win the nod.

Their expenses, disclosed Friday in first-quarter financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, underscore the heavy costs that each candidate has incurred to bring in their contributions and, in Romney’s case, raise his profile among voters.

Romney, for his part, spent more than any candidate had even raised during this stage of the 2004 presidential race. He spent $11.6 million during the quarter.

The reports also indicate the relatively narrow base of big donors behind each of the Republican primary’s two fund-raising leaders. Romney raised about $9.2 million, nearly half his first-quarter total, from about 4,000 contributors who gave the maximum $2,300 allowed under campaign finance laws. Giuliani’s primary campaign raised about $7.6 million, more than half its total, from about 3,300 donors who paid the maximum. About 430 gave an additional $2,300 to Giuliani’s general election fund, as well.

With 32,000 donors, Romney’s average contribution was about $650. With about 28,000 donors, Giuliani’s average contribution was about $490. In contrast, the campaign of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, had 50,000 donors. The campaign of Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, had more than 100,000. Both had average contributions of about $250 a donor, based on their disclosures so far.

The first-quarter reports are the first look at the scramble for money behind the 2008 presidential race. For the first time since the advent of public financing of presidential campaigns in the aftermath of Watergate, all the leading candidates are planning to reject public matching funds to spend without limits for the primary and the general election.

Unlike the case before public financing, individual contributions are capped — this year at $2,300 for the primary and at that level for the general election — placing special importance on so-called bundlers who gather such donations.

Candidates are required to file their reports by Sunday. Romney and Giuliani’s campaigns chose to file two days ahead of that deadline. Giuliani’s campaign filed in the morning, presumably to maximize attention to the amount of cash he has on hand. Dependence on a relatively small number of donors who have already contributed the maximum to the campaign could be a potential liability in part because it could make it hard for candidates to sustain their fund-raising pace. Candidates with a larger number of smaller contributors can go back to them again for more cash, and they can also cite their donor rolls as evidence of popular support.

The Romney and Giuliani campaign reports provide snapshots of their respective candidacies. Romney began the campaign little known outside of Massachusetts, where he was governor; Michigan, where his father was governor; and Utah, where he was chief executive of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. And as he stepped forward to introduce himself to Republican primary voters, he came under fire from the right for past liberal stances on social issues like abortion (he says his views evolved).

Romney had substantial financial resources. He is the founder of a major private equity firm. His personal wealth is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, giving his campaign a reserve if needed. (To jump-start his fund-raising, he lent the campaign $2.35 million.) His family is among the best-known in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enabling him to tap networks of rich Mormons, as well as Wall Street financiers. He raised about $2.8 million from Utahans, and he raised more than $140,000 from executives of his former companies, Bain consulting and Bain Capital.

Romney used his war chest to spend nearly $2 million on television advertising in selected states to introduce himself to voters on his own terms, before others could characterize him. He also spent heavily on fund-raising consultants in 16 states, including more than $200,000 for a direct mail firm in Virginia to buy a list of potential supporters.

Giuliani’s greatest asset, in contrast, is the fame he acquired as the mayor of New York after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In a conference call to discuss the fund-raising report, Giuliani’s aides noted that they had raised most of their campaign contributions, about $10 million, in the last month of the quarter. They acknowledged a late start in spending and fund-raising, but said the big March demonstrated their momentum.

Giuliani’s first-quarter report did little to address the question of whether he can extend his reputation for strength under fire into deeper support from Republican primary voters outside the Northeast, where his liberal views on social issues are not yet well known.

Giuliani raised 30 percent of his first-quarter contributions from three states, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with about $4.5 million coming from the New York area and $1.3 million from Los Angeles. Employees of Giuliani’s own consulting firms gave about $77,000.

The rest of the Democratic and Republican candidates are expected to file their reports by midnight Sunday. In anticipation of new scrutiny, Obama, who raised $25 million during the first quarter, disclosed on Friday that his campaign had returned 49 political contributions totaling $50,566 from registered lobbyists.

Obama’s campaign has promised to refuse contributions from registered lobbyists. Accepting such donations is legal, and the Obama campaign has sought contributions from the clients of lobbyists or other interest parties. But the campaign has declared the ban on lobbyists’ money to burnish his image as a candidate intent on changing the business of Washington. The campaign said the checks were accepted inadvertently and would appear on the disclosure report when it is filed.

“Giving back these donations is part of our best efforts to ensure we stay true to our commitment to not take money from federal lobbyists,” Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman, said. “As we’ve said and as this illustrates, this policy isn’t a perfect solution to the problem of money and politics and special interest sway in Washington.”