According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the GOP candidates will come up short when they announce third quarter fundraising numbers in the coming days. John Harwood reports: "Among major Republican candidates, only late-starting Thompson and longshot Huckabee claim to have beaten second-quarter haul." Traditionally, the third quarter is the weakest fundraising period of the year. And money plays a less dispositive role in politics than most political reporters are inclined to believe. But Harwood raises a good question: Just how much of his own money will Mitt Romney give to his campaign in the third and fourth quarters? My understanding is that Romney is prepared to spend whatever it takes to get him elected. That means millions of dollars when it counts--the weeks between Thanksgiving and the Iowa caucuses, when the air wars will begin and early primary and caucus voters will learn more bad things about the leading GOP candidates than they ever wanted to know.