The history of presidential elections is filled with ‘flash in the pan’ candidates – charismatic, articulate young leaders who wanted to take the country in a new direction, enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame and faded into oblivion.

But none of them ever raised $25 million.  Barack Obama has.

In politics the golden rule is the gold rules. Big elections cost money and savvy insiders like Hillary usually gobble up naïve, articulate new leaders like Obama for breakfast – because the insiders have the cash.  But Obama’s on his way to raising a hundred million dollars and instead of a coronation Hillary finds herself fighting the political equivalent of total war.

Obama is one of the most liberal candidates ever to run for President.  But that won’t hurt him in the Democratic primary and he has one virtue even the most dyed in the wool conservative can like.  He doesn’t talk like a politician. We could use a few hundred more leaders like that in Congress.

It’s been thirty years since a political outsider had both the message and the cash to challenge the establishment in his own party – that was when Ronald Reagan ran against incumbent President Gerald Ford in the Republican primaries in 1976. It could be that by raising $25 million Barack Obama is sending a signal he’s leading a political movement with a lot more depth than anyone – including Hillary – imagined.

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