Raising hundreds of millions of dollars takes a lot of time and effort. And apparently for John McCain, it means relying on someone you once called a crook.

David Donnelly has a new piece up at Huffington Post highlighting that while Obama may be raking in donations under $200, you only have to look to his colleagues on the Hill to see the money is coming from the same old locations.

Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced that he would opt-out of the presidential public financing system. The news got picked up far and wide.

Over the course of his campaign for president, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has often been accused of changing his personal opinions based on what's most politically expedient. His position on campaign finance reform is no different.

The FEC just released a new tool to make the campaign finance data they have on hand more accessible to and interpretable by the public. This new map feature gives a visual representation of how campaign contributions from individuals to presidential candidates are distributed by state and by zip code. Ignore that the U.S. seems to have contracted blue measles and take a look at the map!

The presidential election is starting to feel a little like the holiday season: it comes earlier each time, costs more, and you really get sick of the commercials. Except when the elections are over, rather than being left with a mountain of holiday debt, you've got a President in debt to wealthy special interests.