The Romney team released its 4th Quarter FEC filing during the Democratic debate last night. During the debate, Barack Obama said he did not think Romney was getting a very good return on his investment. He appears to be right, which is probably why they released the filing during the most hotly anticipated debate of the year.

What did it say? Romney spent $18M of his own money in the 4th Quarter, a total of $35M for 2007. He ended the year with less money than McCain ($2.43M). In the 4th Quarter Romney took in $9M in donations, far less than Rudy’s $14.2M. In January, which is not included in the filing, Romney undoubtedly wrote himself a jumbo check to fund the huge ad buys for the month’s primary states where he was able to outspend his opponents, sometimes by margins of 10 to 1.

What does this all mean? If you spend enough of your own money you can buy many, many ads and stay in the presidential race, but not win many states.