Will Pawlenty lose donors after last night's debate performance?

Right now there is a fierce underground battle being waged over high dollar campaign donors. If you can’t raise money now, before the voters care, you will not have the resources you need to communicate with them when they do tune in. Organizing multiple states, waging straw polls, flying around raising money and running loads of TV and radio is all very expensive. Without constant fuel, a campaign locomotive grinds to a halt. For lesser known candidates like Tim Pawlenty this can create a cruel feedback loop; you need money to buy your way up in the polls, yet without good poll numbers it is very hard to raise money. Early debates are important because if you get good media reviews, you can aggressively peddle those to old and new donors to raise money…

No doubt Tim Pawlenty is still a formidable candidate. Other candidates are going to have bad debates and feel pain. Some are already dead men walking, while Pawlenty is certainly alive. But he needs money now and deep under the surface of the campaign noise, in the essential bone and muscle of the his fund-raising organization, that faint noise you can hear today is one rib quietly cracking.