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A cursory scan of LDV’s posts over the last week confirms that the general election campaign is firing on all cylinders, both on the ground and “in the air”:

• We’ve seen campaign action days all over the country including in the snow. Keeping an eye on all the campaign photos coming up on Twitter, it really is very invigorating to see the smiling faces of local teams working away all over the country.
• Fundraising fillip – Raising £100,000 for the campaign in one day was extraordinary. That’s what happened on Saturday as the deadline approached for our January matched funding campaign. In total, the campaign raised £300,000, half of which came from three generous donors who pledged to match what members and supporters gave during the month.
• Nick Clegg’s appearannce on The Last Leg was a success. I think this did a good deal to improve Nick Clegg’s image. Other appearances below suggest that, apart from anything else, Nick’s energy and stamina are endless. He’s a great advert for kick boxing. And his team seem relentless in organising a continually high profile campaign for him.
• Nick Clegg on Sky News’ Stand up and be Counted #asktheleader
• A triple versioned Party Political Broadcast. Opinion poll wonks such as Peter Kellner have said many times that personal contact is what tends to change minds in the last six months before the election. It was therefore sensible that our PPB capitalised on the strength of our local smiling teams (see above). I was a little concerned about the message at the end, which seemed to be “we’ll split the difference between the others”. However, that was offset by the “stronger economy, fairer society” mantra which encapsulates our pitch very well. I have also now heard it enough times that I am now getting it the right way round!
• Electoral forecast puts Liberal Democrats on 48 seats and on course to hold the balance of power with Labour. OK, this has to be read along with many other studies and, indeed, the corpus of opinion of LDV readers, which put our likely tally lower than that. However, the study’s author, Professor Paul Whitely, has a sound track record of predicting results accurately.
• Nick Clegg on breakfast TV
• Extensive and upbeat interview with party President Sal Brinton

All in all, we’ve made a strong start to the campaign, I think. Nick Clegg is leading from the front. We’re getting healthy and continually wide coverage in the media and those smiling teams are beavering away like good ‘uns on the ground. Nothing could possibly go wrong….could it?

It is perhaps telling that issues have not been upper-most in my mind as I have recalled the last week. The NHS? The deficit? The Snoopers’ Charter? There has been no clear policy area or areas dominating the campaign. Or have I missed something? Is it all about politicians’ appearances at the moment? Have we not yet reached the bit where substance gets a look in? Will it ever get a look in before May 7th?

What do you think of our campaign so far? Please share your thoughts in the comments thread below.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.