If Barack Obama looked like a campaign fund-raising champ before this week, just wait.

Now that he has captured the Democratic presidential nomination to face Republican John McCain in the November election, the Illinois senator will try to lay claim not only to many former Hillary Clinton donors, but also Democrats who have been undecided until now.

The result is likely to be another sharp spike in political donations, amid a political race already smashing fundraising records, campaign finance experts said.

“We’re easily going to have the first billion-dollar presidential race,” said Richard Parker, lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Obama had raised $265.4 million from all sources through the end of April, according to the latest analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, campaign finance watchdog.

New York Sen. Clinton’s total take over the same period was $214.9 million, while Arizona Sen. McCain’s was $96.7 million.

I was thinking about the cash in this season.  All this money spent to get a $500,000 a year job, but of course it comes with a buttload of power.  But is it worth the cost?  I mean would you spend a million dollars to get a $50,000 a year job?  It is really time to make this a process that anyone can enter, niot just those little rich twits that are not looking to improve the country, but rather just a meal for their egos.