Obama campaign raised $52 million in June...Update

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign says it raised $52 million last month.

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee ended the month of June with a combined total of nearly $72 million in the bank.

Last week the campaign of Republican John McCain reported raising more than $22 million in June, which was his best month of the year.

Together, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee began July with about $95 million in the bank.

Update:

By Greg Sargent - July 17, 2008, 10:48AM

Here's a bit more detail on Obama's $52 million June haul: According to the Obama campaign, some $50 million of this was raised for use in the primary, and $2 million was raised for the general.

Does this matter? Not really.

Campaign finance rules dictate that any money raised for the primary can be spent all the way up until the convention, even if the primary has already been settled. So Obama can spend the $50 million all the way up until the end of August -- not a difficult thing to do.

And as it happens, Obama could also roll over money left over from the $50 million for use in the general if he so chose. TPM's resident numbers-obsessive, Eric Kleefeld, checked in with Federal Election Commission spokesperson Bob Biersack, who confirmed that Obama can roll over that money because he's opted out of public financing and hence is no longer bound only to spend public money on the general.

So the only significance of the primary-general breakdown is that Obama can't spend the $2 million raised for the general until after the convention. And that obviously doesn't matter at all.

Late Update: Commenters are making a good point: The real significance of the $2 million for the general is that it means that all these donors are still there to be tapped for general election money.