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The 2008 presidential campaign has been waged amidst lofty promises from the candidates about changing the partisan and plutocratic culture in Washington. From Obama's "Change We Can Believe In" to McCain's "straight talk", the two men who will vie for the presidency in November have lofted much oratory touting their desire, willingness and credentials to initiate change within the Beltway.

But all this talk of change leaves one flummoxed when a more careful analysis of each candidate is undertaken. Despite all their eloquence in favor of change, we've seen little example of any real action taken in that direction.

Obama entered the Democratic primary season as a long-shot candidate, far behind John Edwards and Hillary Clinton and indeed even Joe Biden and Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd. It looked as though the young senator from Illinois, the darling of the 2004 Democratic National Convention when he spoke stirringly about war and the state of government in a rousing address, would be making nothing more than a token appearance to begin building name recognition in advance of future campaigns. Somewhere along the way, "change" became the sudden initiative for which to strive. Young voters took to it easily, and the Obama campaign was quick to capitalize. As he began appearing more and more nuanced with each successive debate and appearance, the field winnowing down and still the first-term senator continued onward. He made well-received speeches and mobilized internet and grassroots campaigning on a level never before seen. Yet, even as he touts a new brand of non-partisan politics, the ultimate goal is the same as it always has been in politics - to gain as much money as possible in an effort to burnish one's reputation and/or to tarnish one's opponent in the eyes of voters...

Both McCain and Obama, the two current names on the ballot in a never-ending cycle of bipartisan politics in America, came into their campaigns vowing to take only public campaign funds. For McCain, this long looked like a masterstroke as he languished behind Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani and even gained less positive press than B-actor Fred Thompson and bled money from the campaign coffers. For Obama, this increasingly looked like a tactical gaffe, as his burgeoning campaign succeeded where Howard Dean's had failed in 2004 - effectively utilizing the internet to draw broad-based financial and volunteer support in communities throughout the fifty states. Money poured

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