“Barack Obama said Friday that he got more political money from indicted Chicago businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko than he has previously acknowledged. Rezko helped raise up to $250,000 for his various political races, Obama’s campaign said. The campaign had previously put the figure at $150,000 but now says that amount was only for his 2004 Senate race.

(Obama’s) long friendship with Rezko has hampered his efforts to campaign as a new-style politician who abhors backroom deals and insider favors.” [AP]

File under Irony: Turns out Obama really didn’t need to take questionable money. Millions of little people (like me) would have given it (ARE giving it!) to him. I feel like I just crawled into the back seat on prom night. I haven’t been violated yet but don’t like it back here. Sigh.

Bright spot: The sit-down with the two newspapers was the right thing to do. Answer every question. I’ll give him points for that.

We’re all familiar with the O-face. Now, there’s the O-Bama Face:

The O-Bama Face (n.): the expression made by an Obama supporter when the inspired oration and possibility of a Commander In Chief Obama becomes just too much to take.

“The election has “triggered an avalanche of cybersquatter activity,” according to NetNames, a domain name management service. Speculators have registered nearly 2,000 domain names related to presidential candidates as of last week. Names related to Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy made up over half of the registrations, followed by Mr. Obama with 635 and Mr. McCain with 269.” — The Caucus (the NYT politics blog):

I didn’t see a lot of creativity in the domain names listed in the Times story. HillarysFatAss.com and UppityAfroAmerican.com were conspicuous by their absence.

"This is not, finally, an election of the new against the old. It is an election about the place of the America in the world of nations, and whether we are to be known primarily as a dreaded superpower. It is an election about catastrophes, both natural and man-made. It is the election of Katrina and Baghdad." — David Bromwich

Arianna explains why Obama is winning:

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign model,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist told me this morning in Chicago, “is a very tired Washington model: ‘I’ll do these things for you.’ Barack’s model is ‘Let’s do these things together.’ This has been the premise of Barack’s politics all his life, going back to his days as a community organizer. He has really lived and breathed it, which is why it comes across so authentically.

“Of course, the time also has to be right for the man and the moment to come together. And, after all the country has been through over the last seven years, the times are definitely right for the message that the only way to get real change is to activate the American people to demand it.”

“Small is the new big,” (Mark Penn wrote). “Many of the biggest movements in America today are small.”

Except when they are very big, and getting bigger by the day. And you’ve missed them.