Grassroots support vs. Machine money

Barack Obama refuses to accept funds from lobbyists and political action committees -- two traditionally strong political contributors. The decision was part of Obama's campaign to bring a new politic to Washington.

Instead, Obama depends on grassroots action -- volunteer time and work -- to offset the loss in hard cash. To be sure, Barack has his share of wealthy donors, but these are mostly considered "outsiders." More likely most of Obama's funds will consist of a large number of relatively small donations similar to the pattern seen in the Howard Dean campaign.

For the Obama campaign, one of the big challenges will be to leverage the huge popular support of their candidate in ways other than simple cash donations. Many of the senator's supporters are too young to offer much monetary help, but they can work if provided enough bottled water.

Organizing the throngs of Obamaites is now mostly a do-it-yourself thing and will remain so until later in the campaign when the voters are thinking about their choices.

at official barackobama.com website