I keep seeing Clark supporters hinting all over the blogosphere that his Q4 donations will exceed Dean's.

(Anybody got a cite for an actual campaign staffer's recitation of the claim?)

This begs numerous questions. A few:

• How would they know?
• Where are they getting their Dean numbers? Inside information, or educated estimates?
• What makes them so certain their current take + the next 9 days will outstrip Dean's end-of-quarter surge? (If in fact they are currently ahead of Dean; are they?)
• Why not just brag that they will outstrip all candidate numbers from past quarters? Seems an easier claim to be certain of.
• Or is this just a psych-out, hoping to make it so by claiming it long in advance as a fait accompli? (An effective tactic for Republicans in recent years.)

And finally:

• How much backtracking will the campaign and its supporters do when they fail? (Probably none. It'll all be evidence for a conspiracy against Clark or the insane fanaticism of Dean supporters, boo hoo.)

I welcome all sorts of answers.