the impact might be most acutely felt on the tea party. what do you think? i think that s true to an extent, except that a lot of tea party candidates have the backing for people for club of growth, american cross roads and big money corporate interests, which is ironic, because they say they re anti-big corporations. what s frightening about this is we re sort of speeding toward the time when only millionaires, billionaires and people completely in hock to millionaires and billionaires can run for office. that s not a good thing for democracy. mike, look at these numbers. it s good to be reminded as shocking as it was two years ago, the money spent in the last presidential campaign total between barack obama and john mccain. a billion dollars. people suggest it will be a billion per the next time around. is that just ridiculous? this is a reaction to president obama s success fund-raising last time. he s going to raise a billion dollars in the presidential campaign. he s the fir