In an end-of-year fundraising video, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina appeals for grassroots cash, describing as  "bullsh**" the speculation that theirs is a billion-dollar campaign.

"People have speculated that this is a billion-dollar campaign. That's bullsh**," he says. "We don't take PAC money, unlike our opponents. We fund this campaign in contributions of $3 or $5 or whatever you can do to help us expand the map, to put more people on the ground, to build a real grassroots campaign that is going to be the difference between winning and losing."

Watch the video HERE.

The Obama campaign has never explicitly thrown out the billion-dollar figure and aides have pushed back hard on media reports that they anticipate raising that much during the campaign. 

They raised a record-high $746 million in 2008. Obama has raised $87 million so far this year for his re-election fight.

In the video, Messina also outlines the campaign's strategy to reach 270 electoral votes next fall.  He says the president's team sees 40 possible combinations and uses maps to highlight five of them.   (We have previously reported on these "pathways" HERE and HERE.)

"In the end, it's just a financial decision," Messina says. "Do we have enough money to register the voters we need in Arizona? Can we start putting more neighborhood team organizers on the ground in North Carolina? It's all about whether or not we have the resources to do this."