Watching the so-called liberal media turn on Obama for rejecting public financing has been interesting. He has become a flip-flopper - change, they say, we can no longer believe in.

But from his supporters on-line, I see a new enthusiam, and a new willingness to donate that is far more fascinating.

For decades, presidents have been determined by which candidate did the best job of grovelling for rich people's money. Sure, George Bush won the presidency from inside the public financing system, but as soon as he got into office, he paid off the big business supporters who financed his primaries by eliminating regulations and installing lobby-types into jobs regulating the industries they used to work for. End result? $4 gas, stupid war, worthless dollars and financial markets a wreck. Biggest beneficiaries? Oil companies and defense contractors...the same industries for which the president and vice president previously worked. This does not speak well for the idea that public financing makes the system more responsive to the people. This is proof that the system is, indeed, broken.

The point of public financing is not to change where the money comes from. Its to change who the elected respond to.

Had Obama accepted public financing, he would now be spending his time trying to get big benefactors to give money to the DNC, to counter the big war chest the RNC already has. Along the way, he'd be racking up huge political debts to trial lawyers, health insurance and energy companies, eager to curry favor with the front runner. The likelyhood that his army of small donors could be switched over to a party aparatus that neither likes or respects them is very slim. So after the election, those fat cats would be first in line, doing all they can to keep energy and health insurance prices high, and Obama would owe them. It would be business as usual... a good man corrupted by the need to beg for rich people's money.

But since he flip-flopped on his public financing promise, he has stayed true to the vision of his supporters...the vision of a president who works for them, instead of the fat cats. Rich people are still free to give, but they do so knowing that this campaign doesn't belong just to them.

And what is the first thing we see him doing with this money? Opening up voter registration drives in all 50 states. He expects to win by getting more taxpaying little people to vote. He is scaring Republicans with the idea that more people and more states will be important in November. Pundits may see this as unfair, but how could politics be any more democratic than that? And odds are he will be more sucessful than most, because there is a huge army of little people who want to help. Students and grandmas who have more time than money, willing to phone bank and knock on doors. Obama plans to use his cash to channel their energy into votes.

And those little people are like little sharks, smelling blood in the water. They see the panic in the eyes of the fat fish who have been gobbling up all the political spoils, and using it to preserve a system that works better for Wall Street than on Main Street.

I am not sure Obama will be a good president or a great one. But I am sure he has awakened a real hope in regular folks, that if they get up off their butts, write a little check or spend a little time, they can make a difference. He will undoubtedly be ridiculed for having more money, just as we saw Hillary make fun of his crowds, as if there is something evil about a candidate that people actually want to support.

The road ahead will be difficult. On talk radio, corporate America's multi billion dollar free contribution to the Republican party, they are already comparing his movement to the Nazi's. Look for a campaign of fear that pulls out all the stops. But along the way, the little people have learned something. $20 bucks at a time, they toppled the strongest political machine the Democratic Party has seen since Roosevelt.

But that was easy compared to what lies ahead. It will be very interesting to see what happens in America, if little people really can conquer the big bucks. America's monied interests will not give up without a fight.