The number $32 million is astonishing in itself, but when and how the campaign cash was raised is just as impressive.

Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have eclipsed fundraising records, but many of those records fell early on in the presidential election cycle.  The first quarter of 2007 saw both Democratic contenders fly across the nation in an effort to raise money at big ticket cocktail parties, but the $32 million raised by Obama this January came during the busiest voting period of the cycle so far.  Obama did not have time to wine and dine contributors, but instead, he leaned on the online contributor base that the campaign spent a year building. 

Clinton's fundraising base is the Democratic Party establishment, which eventually will become tapped out.  Obama will be able to go back to well over and over.  Small, online contributions will in the end win the day, and serve as an example for a significant campaign fundraising model that can and will outlast the rubber chicken, $2,000 plate, standard fundraising apparatus.