Staying Alive – The Best Bar Graph, Evah.

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition the money race was quantified in numbers. Since it was NPR they needed something other than visual aids to make the point. What better way to make that point than to use music? The brothers Gibb classic “Staying Alive” was used, for every one second played the candidate indicated had raised $2 million dollars. For some of the candidates, like Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson the clips were short. Only a few seconds of the song were played.

John Edwards and Hilary Clinton had enough to capture enough of the song that Steve Inskeep described as “you can almost dance to that.” Barak Obama wasn't listed because he hasn't released any of his figures, but it's speculated to be around $20 million. The story focused on the democratic candidates race to the April 15th deadline for reporting their money raised. The local catch is that Mitt Romney who's positioned himself as a top Republican candidate for President announced today that he's raised approximately $20 million for his bid for the Whitehouse. In years past the $20 million figure would have eclipsed other candidates, this year with the primaries bumped up to earlier dates the race for fundraising has been accelerated. The former Governor Romney has raised enough money to contend with Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama, and perhaps John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani in the initial money race. Staying alive is no longer applicable to Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, but thanks to NPR it's our new bar graph.

Listen to the morning edition report here

Image: You thought we might retire the Romney Sheep when Mitt decided not to run for governor - not likely!