This is indisputably good news for the Obama campaign:

President Barack Obama has shattered first quarter fundraising records for a White House incumbent by raising $86 million for the first quarter — dwarfing the 2012 GOP field’s total take and breezing past his own target of $60 million...the average donation was $69 — lower even than the 2008 average contribution.

And, yeah, in comparison, the Republican field is positively anemic; the Democrats have raised more than every Republican candidate combined. (In fact, they raised more than double what all the Republican candidates raised in the first quarter.) Thanks to these numbers, people are already talking about "the enthusiasm gap" between Democrats and Republicans—basically, they say, Republicans aren't going to drum up the necessary enthusiasm to win the presidency.

I would urge Democrats to not get too confident about their enthusiasm. While enthusiasm is of course important—and it's important to remember that enthusiasm ebbs and flows, like any other emotion—the 2012 election is likely to have more corporate influence than any other presidential election in the last hundred years, thanks to the Supreme Court. Sometimes a ridiculous amount of money is more important than genuine emotion when it comes to motivating large groups of people. I expect third-party dirty tricks are going to hit a spectacular new low during this election cycle, and they'll be funded by a near-bottomless well of corporate cash.