Perhaps voters are imposing their own kind of campaign finance reform, in lieu of institutional campaign finance reform. Clearly, during this election cycle, voters are judging the candidates based on factors that fall outside the realm of paid advertising. They include debate performances and appearances on television shows like David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey. Voters, it seems, are struggling to cut through the clutter of paid, packaged messages, in an effort to take the real measure of the man - or as close to the real measure as you can get through a television lens. If, in the end, money doesn't dictate this election outcome, that will be be good news to the students at the Peter W. Reilly elementary school in Lowell.
Money still narrows the field of candidates.
It still dictates who has access after one candidate wins election. As Harshbarger notes about money and American politics, ''It's about people paying to play. It's about what chits will be called in.