Ahh, the beauty of low expectations. After floating rumors that his numbers might come in below $4 million, Lieberman announced a Q2 haul of $5 million. By lowering expectations, Lieberman was able to declare victory.

However, that number should still place him in fourth or fifth in money raised. And given that he was supposed to be a money-raising machine and a presidential front-runner, his total haul of $8 million thus far this year is surprisingly anemic.

None of the other campaigns (except for Dean, of course) have announced their totals. This is in high contrast to last quarter, when every campaign announced numbers on the day after the deadline. The excuse is that they are all still calculating their numbers, but that seems a bit unlikely. All the campaigns use databases that can generate real-time donation totals.

No, I suspect these campaigns are waiting as long to announce to 1) either give themselves an entire news cycle to themselves and their Q2 announcements, or 2) give themselves as much distance from Dean's announcement to try and avoid unfavorable comparisons.