Big Money Lies 2

More Big Money Lies from Andrew Romano at Newsweek. His first two Obama deceptions and misconceptions are in the next post down. Here are three and four.

3. The Share of Obama's Money That Comes From Small Donors Is Completely Unprecedented - This one's kind of surprising. Obama has certainly set the record for small-sum donations as a share of his total take—about 45 percent of his money comes from checks of $200 or less. 31 percent of Bush's money in 2004 came from donations of $200 or less (compared to 16 percent in 2000). Kerry, meanwhile, raised 37 percent of his money in 2004 from small donors (as compared to 20 percent for Gore in 2000). That's only eight points less than Obama—and there's a strong chance Kerry would've increased his haul with 2008's improved technology.

So this number has been going up every year - it doesn't necessarily mean that Barack is the God of Small Donations.

4. Obama Won't Receive Any Help From Outside Groups

Barack pretended, as part of his opt-out from public financing, that he was also not going to get any 527 help. But he will likely receive millions of supportive spending from several groups.

These include America Votes, an umbrella organization planning a $20 million voter mobilization drive; PowerPAC.org, also planning to invest $15 million on GOTV; a host of unions, including the SEI and A.F.L.-C.I.O., which announced its $53.4 million election effort late last month; and, of course, MoveOn.org, which recently closed its 527 but is hoping to raise some $40 million for the general election through its political action committee.