The USA Today spends some time [1] in an editorial today highlighting the ever-increasing role of money in the political process and the need for full public financing of elections for Congress and a fix for the presidential public financing system:

"After the mega-scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, it's heartening that the candidates are at least trying to keep their distance from black-hat influence peddlers. But more important than head-of-a-pin arguments over who's purer on the lobbyist issue, it's who's trying to do something about a system where presidential candidates are forced to go hat in hand to special interests that typically expect a return on their investment."

The paper goes on to note that while both Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) have endorsed "broader public financing," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is opposed.

Over 9,000 people have already signed on to [2] a letter by Public Campaign Action Fund asking Sen. McCain to support a public financing system similar to the successful one in place in his home state of Arizona. We delivered the letter [2] recently, but haven't heard back.