Mitt Romney has spent an average of $200,000 a day running for president. That’s according to the official fund-raising numbers released this afternoon by the Romney campaign. Romney raised $10 million in contributions, and dug into his own deep pockets to lend his campaign $8.5 million. That means Romney has given his campaign roughly $17.5 million so far. Overall, including the loans, Romney has raised around $62 million since the beginning of the year. But here’s the important number: According to the Romney campaign, it ended the third quarter with just $9 million cash on hand, which means he’s spent close to $53 million running for president during the first nine months of the year. That's about $5.9 million a month or $194,000 a day on average. Or to really get your head around the numbers, put it this way: According to your Gaggler’s handy calculator, Romney has shelled out about $2.25 a second during the first nine months of year. If he hadn't dipped into his personal funds, his operation would be running in the red.

How does Romney's spending compare with his rivals? While we are still waiting on cash on hand totals for Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there are more details available about fund-raising on the GOP side. Rudy Giuliani announced today that he raised $11 million during the third quarter, with an overall total of $46 million so far this year. According to the campaign, Giuliani will report roughly $16 million cash on hand, which means he’s spent about $30 million during the first nine months of the year. Broken down, that’s an average of $3.3 million a month, $110,000 a day or $1.27 a second. (If he weren't so dead set on winning the White House, Rudy could be kicking back with a tall caramel macchiatto every three seconds! Talk about misplaced priorities.) Meanwhile, John McCain’s campaign reports he raised $6 million this quarter--a fair number for a guy whose campaign was pronounced dead just a month ago. According the McCain camp, he’ll report $3.6 million in the bank, though there's no word on his debts, which were sizeable on his last financial report. How does his burn rate compare to Romney? Overall, McCain has raised about $31.3 million during the last nine months and spent roughly $27.7 million. That’s an average of $3.1 million a month, $101,000 a day or $1.17 a second since January. In other words, these guys are spending a lot of dough for a job that pays just $400,000 a year--or 2 days, in Romney dollars.