in one month, Obama raised nearly twice the total amount allowed per candidate who partakes of public financing.

Seems like Obama made a very smart, strategic choice.

It also looks like there is plenty of popular support for Obama, even if the polls suggest a "tight" race.

this, along with the 100,000 who gathered to see obama yesterday, support what you say -- more importantly, it shows that supporters are not getting complacent. just the opposite.

i've been predicting the race would tighten up as we near election day, for a variety of reasons. then again, i predicted the rays would win last night. sometimes i like being wrong and i hope i am this time, too.

The way McCain has campaigned has inflamed and motivated a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have cared.

Example: I'm 40. Never voted, never even registered to vote in my life. Didn't plan on registering for this election. But due solely to McCain's decision to overtly run a campaign based on inflaming racist hatred I went out and registered. I registered to show my disgust at McCain.

One assumes many people who are as apathetic as me, or even slightly less are also motivated along the same lines.

I like how McCain has turned Obama's take into "breaking the campaign finance system." It wasn't broken by the K street project or the Enron loophole, but by a million people giving $150 each to a Democratic candidate.

I think your situation is rather common. I'm a little older than you are (and have always voted), but I've been traveling quite a bit on business of late and we usually follow grueling all-day meetings with a communal dinner. In the past, politics virtually never came up.

Now, at dinner stories like yours keep popping up amid admissions that some folks have contributed to their first political campaigns and even canvassed for Obama. I think that there's a deep connection to his candidacy, folks who have been demoralized by the past 8 years really do feel that by contributing and supporting Obama we are making it clear that we disagree with the direction that the Republicans have chosen and that we have had enough.

Milestones such as this staggering degree of fundraising really brings it home -- especially the impression that huge numbers of relatively small donations did the trick. Obama's campaign is truly our campaign -- gives a whole new meaning to the concept of an inclusive "ownership" society.

Finally some light at the end of a dark, dingy tunnel.

I know but my point is that I and I bet many others like me (the apathetic)are motivated not by Obama as much as disgusted by McCain's play for racist anger. In other words McCain is as much to credit for Obama's surge in support as much as Obama is.

in other words McCain is as much to credit for Obama's surge in support as much as Obama is.

Sure-- but in many ways, McCain's approach is no different than many of the things that Bush and Friends have pulled, he's just crystallized it. Hell, I'm from NYC and was a Hillary supporter-- now, there was no way on g_d's green earth I would have voted for McCain, but I may have sat out. But his choice of Palin was so repulsive to me (I'm female, BTW) that I started to re-appraise Obama, and over the past 2 months I have gained new respect for him. Now I am an ardent supporter.

So, in a way, McCain's campaign pushed me as well -- and as long as the end result is that these guys are shoved out of Washington, it's all good. Enjoy your vote!

Granted. We all know that repubs have been playing this game for a long time, but nonetheless, perhaps because its a bit personal to me the difference between previous campaigns' use of code words and winks and nods and McCain's campaign OVERT stoking of hatred anger and the recently resurrected 'anti-America' charge is huge. And I think its the same for a lot of people.

Having his football viewing experience disturbed by seeing ads for his opponent in the presidential race...

It really chokes me up that McCain is too stupid or lazy to use a freekin TIVO.

We know he can afford one. He's a big fan of Dubya's tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.

What an asshole.

Where did questions about who Barack Obama is come from?

More importantly, after almost two years of campaigning and only two weeks from election day, why do questions and inaccuracies about him continue to exist?

Many say racism is the culprit,

while many others say there are unanswered questions or inconsistent answers to questions.

Barack Obama, his campaign and surrogates accuse John McCain and Sara Palin of inciting racism and hatred.

In addition, they either ignore the fact that McCain has edified his audience / supporters of Barack's religion, nationality... or they say McCain's request for "respect" of his opponent is too little and too late.

--Millions of 'white Americans' gather to see and hear Barack Obama speak, and have sent millions of dollars to allow for his multi-million dollar campaign.

...Still "racism" is blamed for the lack of 100% of Americans supporting Obama's election to be their President?

People are smart and fair enough only if they support Barack, but ignorant and/or racist if they ask questions?

Barack is not only an educated, articulate, and charismatic man who has managed to captivate an audience here and around the world, he has the ability to convince people experiencing financial crisis to give him money!!!!

Three areas where there is no doubt about Barack Obama are his oratory skills to draw listeners, motivate people to believe and follow him, and the ability to raise a lot of money.

Speaking, Organizing, Motivating, Fund Raising...

~Perhaps Barack Obama is over qualified to be President.

...there is no other time that you will ever get it past the Republicans. Just as the best time to get rid of the electoral college would be an election where a Democrat wins the electoral but loses the popular vote, this is the best time to get rid of the shitty system for campaign finance that we currently have.

I agree that it is sour grapes for Republicans to complain so bitterly now that McCain has been outspent -- he had the same opportunity to forego public financing. Then, of course, he would have been further embarrassed by the pitifully small amounts of money he would have been able to raise in comparison to Obama's juggernaut, people-funded campaign.

I truly believe that we need not only publicly-financed campaigns for every office in the land, we also need to reform our representation system with things like instant-runoff voting and proportional representation, which would eliminate the false choice between "the lesser of two evils" which we often face.

We need to complete the election reform process, including the above issues and also ensuring accurate vote counts by requiring that all electronic voting machines include a paper trail for audit re-count purposes.

This should be priority #1 for the next administration, with alternative energy as the basis of economic renewal as #2. Everything else we need will never happen without those two, since we would not have either the financial or electoral capability to achieve anything but watered-down, politically-tarnished programs under the current, sad campaign parameters.