President Bush’s lame-duck status and the Democrats’ narrow control of Congress made it increasingly apparent that little would be accomplished domestically during Bush’s last years in office. The Democrats lacked enough votes to override presidential vetoes of their legislation, and Bush lacked enough Republican votes in Congress to enact his own program. As a result the race for the presidency in 2008 got off to an early start, and it promised to be the most expensive election in U.S. history. By April 2007 six declared Democratic candidates had raised $78 million, and five Republican candidates had raised $53 million, for a combined total of $131 million, with many more months of fundraising to go. Among the leading Democratic contenders were senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. Among the leading Republicans were former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Senator John McCain. They were vying for leadership of a country that reached a population of 300 million in 2006. They were contending over a number of issues, ranging from the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to global warming, health insurance, immigration, nuclear weapons proliferation, and the health of the U.S. economy.