The mad cash dash

With another fund-raising quarter ending this weekend, the presidential money-grubbing is so intense that you can almost hear the coins clanking in the piggy banks.

The emails to supporters are coming fast and furious now: Bill Clinton is urging contributors to give to Hillary; Chris Dodd's campaign is encouraging supporters to form "Dodd Squads" to raise money; and Mitt Romney, the Republicans' top fund-raiser in the first three months of 2007, is pushing people to donate what they can before the quarter closes on Saturday. "Any amount you can give would mean so much," Romney wrote.

By early next week, we should have a pretty good sense of who's up, who's down, who's got momentum, and who's on life support. Expect the pundits to begin writing some political obits. Key questions: Will Romney maintain his fund-raising dominance, and how much of his own money will he have put in? Will John McCain post a respectable enough number to get the chattering class off his back? And can Hillary continue to edge out Barack Obama?