The Associated Press reports that that the tally for Romney's kickoff fundraising call-a-thon is over $6 million:

    Republican Mitt Romney and 400 of his strongest supporters raised over $6.5 million on Monday in a glitzy fundraising blitz aimed not only at financing his fledgling presidential campaign, but also scaring off potential rivals and putting existing ones on notice.

    "They've come together and blown us away today, and humbled us at the same time," the beaming former Massachusetts governor said as he clutched the hand of his wife, Ann.

    The figure dwarfed the $2 million estimated to have been raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the $1 million raised by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also have created 2008 exploratory committees.


At the same time, however, a recent Investor’s Business Daily poll is pretty consistent with most 2008 general election polls, showing McCain and Giuliani ahead of potential Democratic rivals, and Romney losing handily to Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

For Romney to win the Republican nomination, he not only has to convince primary voters that he’s adequately conservative, but that he can win in November.

Supporters of Romney would argue that the fact that he won in the solidly blue state of Massachusetts is proof positive that he would be competitive in a general election. However, it’s worth noting that the Romney who won the Massachusetts governor’s mansion in 2002 was the pro-choice, pro-gay rights, moderate Romney, not the “evolved” conservative he’s portraying himself as now.

In fact, a SurveyUSA poll taken last month showed that his approval rating in Massachusetts was 39 percent vs. a disapproval rating of 59 percent—among “independents” his approval rating was a slightly higher but still lackluster 42 percent.

The obvious caveat applies that we’re 22 months from Election Day 2008 and such horse race polls are meaningless, especially because Romney remains unknown to most Americans.

However, at some point the electability issue will be a factor in the Republican primaries, and those hypothetical matchups will have to look better for Romney or the money he's raising may not help him much.