Karl makes the point I’ve been pushing for a few days now: It’s time for everyone to calm down about Barack Obama’s fundraising in the last quarter.

We’re told the fact he raised $43 million for himself and $27 million for the Democratic National Committee is impressive and should give Republicans pause. And on the face of it, that’s right. But it’s much less impressive once we start putting things in context.

Let’s keep two things in mind: 1) Democrats really only have one presidential candidate to support, and 2) Democratic donors to the DNC don’t have to wait for a nominee to get in the game. They already have their nominee. They have the timeline advantage.

Republicans, on the other hand, are still deciding on a nominee. So obviously we’re seeing donors split between multiple candidates. When we add up the total of dollars given to our candidates in the last quarter, we get $49.725 million. You’ll note that’s actually more than Obama raised as the sole candidate for his party.

But what about the committees? The Republican National Committee raised $23.4 million during the last quarter, while the Democratic National Committee took in $27 million. So they were very close despite the fact Democrats already have their nominee.

When you add up the totals for candidates and parties, Republicans actually outraised the Democrats. The total Republican haul is $73,125,000 — more than the $70 million haul for the Democrats. The left’s fundraising numbers aren’t looking so impressive now, are they?

And then there’s this:

Moreover, as only some of the media noted, the Bush/Cheney 2004 re-elect campaign raised $50 million in the third quarter of 2003. That’s considerably more than Obama, even before adjusting for inflation. On Twitter, GOP fundraiser/consultant Nathan Wurtzel noted that in 2003, the contribution limit was 25% lower and candidates did not raise general election money (taking public funds instead). Nathan added that at this point in 2003 Bush/Cheney had over $70 million in cash on hand, while Obama/Biden now has only $61.4 million cash on hand.

So despite the fact contribution limits were lower in 2004 than today, Bush/Cheney actually outraised Barack Obama in the third quarter and ended up with more cash-on-hand.

Bottom line: This is no time to panic. You want something to worry about? Worry about the timeline advantage. Worry about the Republican ground game in swing states. Worry about the 72-hour GOTV program that failed in 2010. All of that is something to worry about. The fundraising numbers? Not so much.