David Donnelly has a new piece up at Huffington Post highlighting that while Obama may be raking in donations under $200, you only have to look to his colleagues on the Hill to see the money is coming from the same old locations.

Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced that he would opt-out of the presidential public financing system. The news got picked up far and wide.

Senator Barack Obama (D) has decided to opt out of the partial public financing system for the general presidential election, the first candidate to do so since the system was adopted. He is expected to have a fundraising advantage over Republican rival John McCain. In response to Obama's decision, Public Campaign Action Fund has released this statement.

Breaking news: not all lobbyists are evil people. In related news, "lobbying" signifies so many different types of activities undertaken in pursuit of so many goals that to vilify or exonerate the whole profession is a useless enterprise. Instead, let's get after the real danger here: big campaign contributions from lobbyists (and their clients) that come in around about the same time key legislation is being debated and voted on. Lobbying isn't wrong, legalized bribery is.

As Senators Barack Obama and John McCain head out on the fundraising trail as their parties presumptive nominees for President, the Washington Post wonders how the two, who have each exerted considerable effort to frame themselves as reformers out to change the way campaigns are financed, go about navigating the big money game in their race for the White House.

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are in something of a pitched battle to demonstrate how little lobbyists influence their campaigns.  While McCain struggles with the high number of lobbyists working on behalf of his campaign, and a new conflict of interest policy that has led to a handful of firings, Obama is addressing the money side of the equation by telling the DNC to refuse contributions from federal lobbyists and PACs, as his campaign has done.