Obama claims nearly 250,000 donors

With the second quarter closing this Saturday, Barack Obama's campaign says it's closing in on what would be an impressive milestone: 250,000 unique contributors to his presidential campaign.

"Suddenly, we're within reach of something no presidential campaign has ever dreamed of at this stage," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in an email to supporters today. "With your support, we could reach 250,000 donors for the year by the June 30th filing deadline." (They're tracking their progress on the campaign's web site.)

Plouffe goes on to say that the media and the punditocracy are missing the story by focusing on how much the candidates are raising, instead of how many contributors they have -- the idea being that donors, not the total amount raised, is a better indicator of grass-roots support. Is this a tacit acknowledgment that Hillary Clinton will outraise him again this quarter? We'll know after this weekend. Until then, the expectations-setting game continues unabated.

To wit: Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, announced on the campaign blog today that they will have raised roughly $27 million in the second quarter, eclipsing the $26 million they raised in quarter one. "While that figure is record setting, we do expect Senator Obama to significantly outraise us this quarter," Wolfson wrote.