Push-Button Politics
Interesting news today in the aftermath of the Democratic draw on Ginormous Tuesday. Hillary Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million dollars late last month, an investment that might have helped her stave off potential disaster in the big coastal states where she scored big victories.

Meanwhile, Obama raised more than that much today, and is on pace to have his second straight month of more than $30 million in campaign contributions.

There are a couple ways to think about this. One, the preferred spin of the Obama forces, is that their man has a much broader donor pool to draw upon, and almost all of them have yet to "max out" the term for those who have already sent $2,300 for the primary campaign. This is true. Another is that a lot of them--and here I have to admit "us" is a better term--are more willing to part with money than time.

I've gone through one of those navel-gazing extravaganzas on this: am I a bad American or a moral cretin because I'm much more willing to key in some numbers and hit "send" than phone-bank, leaflet or otherwise volunteer? I'm pretty busy these days, but I could find the time. Frankly, though, I don't think I'd be much help. If I could write something for them, or advise on policy (as if that would sway many primary voters at this point), I'd happily do so. But they just need either time or money, and of those two commodities, I'd rather part with (a little bit of) money.

At any rate, I guess for the campaign it's a nice problem for me to be faced with.

Meanwhile, some recommended reading:

-->Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Clintons' Shadiest Donors

Think John McCain, of sainted campaign-finance reform fame, won't bash the Clintons over the head with these fine folks in a general election where he'll have precious few other substance appeals to independents? Yeah, he's come a long way--in the wrong direction--from the days of McCain/Feingold. But his media worshippers will happily put that aside to root around yet again in the voluminous Clinton garbage.

-->The Democrats' Choice: Manager or Visionary

A very well argued summary of how Clinton and Obama would likely differ in their approaches to policymaking... an important comparison for voters, given that the policies themselves are pretty similar between the two.