One of Barack Obama’s hometown newspapers, the Chicago Sun-Times, chimes in with an editorial today inspired by Obama’s half-hour infomercial. The paper notes that the program was the product of the huge funding disparity between Obama (who opted out of public financing) and John McCain (who took $84 million in federal funds).

Most importantly, it joins other papers in calling for a fix to the system: “Public financing of campaigns can give lesser-known candidates a fair shot and, when it’s funded well – as a few states have done – produce more competitive races, more candidates and more newcomers. When Obama broke his pledge to take a public grant, he said he would work to overhaul the political finance system. On Nov. 5, whether or not he’s president-elect, we plan to hold him to that.”

Speaking of the Obama campaign, the New York Times takes a look at how it’s spending its money: 30 minute commercials aside, it spends it quite frugally, it turns out.

The Times joins the Sun-Times in calling for a fix to the system in an editorial that notes this campaign could wind up costing $2 billion. The paper calls for a more aggressive system for dispensing federal matching funds and calls on Congress to limit the power of joint state and national fund-raising committees, which still allow for the writing of huge checks (and granting the access that goes along with them).

Over at Slate, John Dickerson and Chris Wilson engage in an experiment to see how easy it would be for Obama to disclose the source of his small donations: They claim it’s not difficult at all.

Finally, just one reminder of who’s still working hard to pull strings in Washington, according to the Wall Street Journal: “Lobbyists descended on Capitol Hill to push for an economic-stimulus bill that could cost as much as $150 billion…”

The presidential candidates have now released their pre-election campaign finance reports, the last official, comprehensive look we’ll get at their spending and fundraising before Election Day. As the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports, John McCain has been spending about $1.5 million a day and “likely has only $12 million to spend in the next 11 days before the Nov. 4 election.”

As for Obama, his fundraising appears to have slowed off the breakneck pace that allowed him to raise $150 million in September. In the first two weeks of the month, Obama raised $36 million. Still, when combined with money raised by the Democratic National Committee, Obama had $97 million on hand to spend, compared to $84 million for McCain and the Republican National Committee. (While the AP portrayed this as bad news for Obama, the Los Angeles Times’ Dan Morain saw it as further evidence of Obama’s dominance.)

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor’s Linda Feldmann joins the chorus of reporters writing about the future of campaign finance in the wake of Obama’s blockbuster September. And the Baltimore Sun joins the chorus of newspaper editorial boards calling for the next president and Congress to fix a broken system.

Finally, CQ Politics’ Bart Jansen notes that watchdog groups, in the wake of Obama’s record-breaking haul, are “drafting ways to attempt in the next Congress to curb big-dollar presidential campaign bundlers without discouraging the wave of small-dollar contributions flowing in through the Internet.”

Another day brings another report of the entanglements between John McCain and Freddie Mac. In this morning’s Washington Post, Matthew Mosk and David Hilzenrath focus on Mark Buse. Buse is a shining example of Washington’s revolving door – he went from working for the Senate Commerce Committee (which McCain chaired) to being a Freddie Mac lobbyist and then back to Capitol Hill, becoming McCain’s chief of staff.

Buse was hired specifically for his ties to McCain, with an eye on keeping McCain’s oversight of the mortgage lender in check. Another former Freddie Mac lobbyist said Buse was “hugely successful” in doing so.

In Sarah Palin news, attempts by her attorney general to end the “Troopergate” investigation were stymied yesterday by a judge, the Anchorage Daily News’ Sean Cockerham reports. The results of the investigation are scheduled to be released Oct. 10.

In Roll Call, Joshua Spivak writes a eulogy to campaign finance reform, blaming McCain and Barack Obama equally. He warns that 2012 will be a free-for-all in terms of fundraising and spending without “radical reform” of the system.

Finally, we learned yesterday of one place McCain won’t be spending money: Michigan. However, reports indicate they will try to make a play in Maine and still have hopes of “flipping” Pennsylvania from blue to red.

Before John McCain takes the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention, Campaign Money Watch’s David Donnelly decided to offer up a “prebuttal” to the Republican nominee’s remarks, a big chunk of which are expected to focus on bringing reform to Washington.

In the prebuttal, David explains why that won’t be the case if McCain were to win. Here are some highlights:

“In his acceptance speech, McCain will try to recapture the past reform victories as prologue to what a President McCain would fight for, but the last two years have exposed him as a cynical, old-school politician. McCain has neither a comprehensive, bold reform agenda that will truly change Washington nor the ability to reject the control exercised by his lobbyist-run, big money-fueled candidacy.”

“Sen. McCain has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues and me for reforms in a number of states around the country. One might call it organizing. But the stakes in this election are too high, and the opportunities to truly change Washington are too great, to remain silent in the face of Sen. McCain’s hollow calls for reform and his reversal on ending campaign money’s grip over who runs for office and what they do if they win.”

“Sen. McCain will likely rail against the lobbyists in Washington and claim he helped craft a new lobbying and ethics law. Despite some good things required under these reforms, how does preventing a lobbyist from buying McCain a $25 lunch while allowing the same lobbyist to raise $250,000 for McCain’s campaign blunt the power of lobbyists?”

The entire prebuttal is available online as a PDF – definitely worth checking out.

While most eyes are on the Democratic Convention, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is still keeping an eye on the GOP convention that will land in its backyard next week. Today, it has news that shows how unimportant reform is to the Republican Party – and to its presumed nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Bob Von Sternberg, writing about the final revisions being made to the official Republican Party platform notes that it’s “silent on campaign finance reform, a McCain signature issue that has deeply alienated him from many conservatives.”

Had John McCain won the nomination in 2000, would this have happened? Probably not. But it’s sadly no surprise from the John McCain of 2008 – no reform in the platform, even though this is the first one since the GOP lost control of Congress in an election where corruption was a huge issue.

Speaking of 2006 and corruption, imprisoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s old district played host to a McCain fundraiser last night – the San Diego Union-Tribune has the report.

The Weekly Standard also has a behind the scenes look at another McCain fundraiser. McCain, as you probably know, has labeled Barack Obama a celebrity – even though, as this story points out, he’s happy to hob-nob with Tinseltown’s conservative crowd.

Finally, The Atlantic’s Clive Crook provides an excellent explainer of how and why there’s so much corporate money flowing into this year’s conventions – with plenty of information from the excellent Center for Responsive Politics.

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