Barack Obama's campaign brags about the large number of small donors it has attracted. They never mention the fat cats who have raised most of the money, though. Mike Dorning and John McCormick report for the Chicago Tribune:

Even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has promoted a large following of small-dollar contributors representing ordinary Americans, his campaign has built an old-school political fundraising machine that relies heavily on the wealthy and the powerful, including a Chicago-based hedge fund manager who earned $1.4 billion last year.

The network of fundraisers generating money for the Illinois senator's campaign includes a heavy representation of attorneys at well-connected law firms and members of the financial industry, including highly paid managers of hedge funds and private equity funds whose lofty compensations have recently generated public controversy.

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Despite the media attention the campaign has grabbed by attracting 258,000 donors -- in many cases people of modest means who have given over the Internet -- a much smaller group of large donors provides most of the funds for the campaign. And those large donors are best tapped through fundraisers who can call on networks of acquaintances and business associates who can easily write big checks.

The bundlers are crucial to raising money for a presidential primary campaign because federal law limits individuals to contributions of no more than $2,300 per candidate.

Sixty percent of the Obama campaign's funds come from people who have given at least $1,000 -- the kind of donors who are most often recruited by bundlers. Less than 30 percent of his contributions came from people who gave less than $200.

Read the whole story at the above link. Not only does the truth contrast sharply with the image Obama wishes to project, but the entire situation - for all candidates - illustrates the utter fallacy of "campaign finance reform" laws.

So long as elections determine the spending of trillions of dollars, big money will find a way to influence them. That's reality. Better to have no limits and instant full disclosure of all donations BEFORE they can be deposited than to have murky mechanisms like "527" groups operating outside the strict regulations and machinations in the shadows by "bundlers" and the like.