I think I’m just about living up to the edicts of Conventional Wisdom here: for me, the headlines out of the first quarter filings are “Obama” and “Romney.” McCain’s not out of it — though I’m sure the campaign wishes it were not just me saying so — and Clinton’s take is less impressive than Drudge would have you believe (“AMERICA LOVES HILARY,” was his headline yesterday). But Obama coming through to merely meet exceedingly high expectations says a lot about voters’ hunger for someone new — and I suppose Romney represents his opposite number. A big difference, however, is that Romney raised that much while trailing the frontrunners in single digits, which is just a reminder of just how different the pools are for “people polled by surveys” versus “people who give to candidates.” I imagine we’ll see them converge now, or at least media coverage will.
Also: Those uninterested in eardrum-shattering squeals of glee might want to stay out of Kathryn Jean Lopez’s way today…