Yesterday's presidential fundraising announcements reveal two different media strategies by the Democratic frontrunners, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton burst out of the gate this quarter by raising $26 million, which is "about three times as much as the previous record at this stage" in 2003, the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick reports today. John Edwards raised $14 million, Gov. Bill Richardson raised $6 million, Sen. Chris Dodd raised $4 million and Sen. Joseph Biden raised $3 million.

Conspicuously absent is Obama, who did not release his totals, "suggesting he may have a big announcement in store," Kirkpatrick writes. Republicans have yet to announce their totals for the same period. All candidates have until April 15 to file reports.

The fundraising delay from Obama is just one part of a larger media story that the Las Vegas Sun's J. Patrick Coolican and Michael Mishak observed. They write that Obama took a knocking in the MSM last week, which is typical of candidates' experiences in years past, but "something's a little different this time around ... The vast profusion of new media, especially on the Internet, means less power for the journalists. Liberal online activists, having seen Al Gore and Howard Dean crushed under the weight of conventional wisdom ... are pushing back." For instance, bloggers highlighted Obama's policy speeches when coverage made him out to be a candidate without substance.

On the Republican side, the Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan writes that Mike Huckabee and Sen. Sam Brownback are hoping a staunchly conservative message will help them break through the pack of more famous, well-funded Republicans in South Carolina and Iowa -- though the "national landscape may be bleak for lesser-known candidates" as states bunch their primaries around Feb 5.

On the even of his formal announcement, Tommy Thompson is using a similar strategy by gambling his entire candidacy on the Iowa caucuses. Fellow dark horse Rep. Tom Tancredo is expected to say he's officially in the running on Iowa radio stations today.

Newt Gingrich hasn't made any announcement but created a lot of news by railing against bilingual education. "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain voiced cautious optimism about Iraq's future while traveling with a small delegation to the country to attend briefings and tour a market with heavy military protection.

Finally, frontrunner Rudy Giuliani said his ties to former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, suspected of links to organized crime, could hurt him with voters and that he should have vetted Kerik better. The New York Daily News' Celeste Katz writes that Giuliani can expect his appointment of Russell Harding to head NYC's Housing Development Corporation to come under fire. Harding was "later found to have kiddie porn on his computer and to have bilked the agency of $400,000."

Find the rest of today's elections news at RCP's Politics and Elections page.