Figures released yesterday show that Barack Obama raised $70m between July and September - $42m for his own re-election campaign and nearly $28m for the Democratic National Commmitee, which helps coordinate the election campaigns of the party's Congressional candidates.

Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager, said that of the 600,000 people who donated so far, 98 per cent gave $250 or less and as many as 250,000 had never donated before. Messina also claims that the Obama campaign staff has grown by 50 per cent in the last three months and is now opening three new field offices every week. This suggests that, despite the President's poor poll ratings, he still commands a huge amount of support from middle-class Americans and grass-roots activists.

In contrast, since entering the race in August to become the GOP 2012 presidential candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry has only raised around $17m. According to The New York Times, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney had raised two or three million less than that. Provided no Democrats decide to stand against him, Obama has the added advantage of not having to go through a costly and time-consuming primary election process, meaning he will be free to refine his re-election strategy for a number of months yet.