The Six Million Dollar Man - Mitt Romney's Six Million Dollar Day

BOSTON -- Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said he was "blown away" by the $6.5 million his friends and family raised and pledged toward a presidential campaign today, a figure that may shoot a bright flare in the direction of Romney's potential 2008 rivals, most notably Sen. John McCain and Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Fundamentally, the telephone-a-thon Romney led here today demonstrats the breadth of his personal network of supporters and associates.

"This is a message to [my wife] Ann and me, to our family and our friends that what we stand for and what we're going to fight for has been heard and that our friends are behind us and support us in remarkable ways and [it] gives us [the] energy and enthusiasm to move forward," Romney told a bank of television cameras and reporters tonight.

"This is not about rivals," he insisted, although his advisers earlier conceded they wanted to send an unmistakable message to McCain, especially, that Romney's organization would be formidable enough to challenge a frontrunner. More importantly, Romney's team hopes the press coverage of the day signals to Republican activists that Romney can compete in a field of heavyweights.

At the same time, raising such a large sum of money in one day -- with the caveat that part of the money has been pledged and not actually delivered -- is bound to raise expectations for Romney to raise a heck of a lot more by the end of the first quarter of record keeping in March. Romney plans to spend much of the next sixty days in fundraisers, aides said.