Obama, Romney: Most expensive political campaigns ever

In late October people thought President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney might each raise over $1 billion. And they were right. 

No prior candidate had surpassed the billion-dollar threshold, but Friday POLITICO reported on a Federal Election Commission report released late Thursday that said the Obama campaign and party committee spent $1.123 billion, while Romney and his party spent $1.019 billion.

But as POLITICO makes clear, these are not the final tallies. These numbers don't include "an explosion of late advertising funded by last-minute checks from mega-donors like Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson and Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner, whose emergence as political forces may be the enduring legacy of 2012."

Romney drew support from large donors who donated to the RNC and super PACs, the Washington Post reported. And while Obama had his share of sugar daddies, "His campaign itself had much more money than Romney’s because it was able to take more small dollar donations," according to the Post.

So it turns out Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina was wrong. He publically said the campaign had no chance of raising one billion dollars.

"People have speculated this is a billion dollar campaign. That's bullshit," Messina said.

Likely Messina said it to motivate donors. Candidates with $1 billion don't exactly inspire voters to donate more money. 

Watch here (comment at after 2:45)