Normally, a $71 million month would look pretty good … but not when compared to the competition this time around.  Looks like Team Obama is starting to understand how Team McCain felt four years ago.  Earlier today, the campaign sent out this e-mail to supporters:

Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

Good news first: June was our best fundraising month yet. We exceeded expectations — more than 706,000 people like you stepped up and pitched in for a grand total of $71 million raised for this campaign and the Democratic Party.

Bravo. That’s seriously impressive.

Bad news? We still got beat. Handily. Romney and the RNC pulled in a whopping $106 million.

Exceeded expectations?  Well, maybe, but that depends on which expectations.  Most Democrats who recalled the massive fundraising Obama and the DNC did in 2008, when they clobbered the McCain/RNC team by nearly 3-1, to at least keep pace with the competition.  Instead, the campaign fell even further behind in the second month of the one-on-one competition than they did in the first.

In fact, as BuzzFeed notes, Team Romney doubled up the gap, going from a $17 million victory in May to a $35 million win in June.  That took place despite the high-profile efforts of Obama to raise money in big-ticket events, with lots of celebrity help.  Romney has had his big-ticket events too, but with a lower profile — and apparently a lot more success.  And this doesn’t count the outside-group fundraising, where Democrats are losing ground, too.