As we've been saying for a while, the presidential public financing system is broken [0].

And while many have highlighted the dramatic increase in small donors to Obama's campaign, it's an anomaly.

David Donnelly has a new piece up at Huffington Post [1] 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.

Moneyed interests have recognized that change is coming. In early 2009, when a new Congress and president take their oaths of office, major issues like global warming, the health care crisis, a faltering economy, and the war in Iraq will await them. In each area, big moneyed interests had, until recently, placed their bets on the status quo and on Republicans. Now that's changing. 

...

This shift is taking place in every major industry with business before Congress. Money is flowing to power. Go right down the line: Electric utility interests used to favor the GOP two-to-one. Now it's fifty-fifty. The defense sector's donations ran nearly 65 to 35 percent for the GOP. Now they favor Democrats by roughly five percent. HMOs have flipped their giving from 60-40 for the GOP to 60-40 for the Democrats. Even the oil and gas industry's donations have shifted by 18 percent toward the Democrats.

Obama, McCain, and members of Congress need to show their commitment to changing the process by supporting fixes to the presidential public financing system and by supporting the Fair Elections Now Act [2] that would provide public financing for Congressional races.