From the street, Obama event had GOP feel

Sen. Barack Obama was across the street, inside the Hilton Hotel, breaking bread with DFLers who anted up $1,000 or more -- much more, for some -- to eat with the man they hope will be the next president. But from where Clifford Dodd sat, across Marquette Avenue, trying to sell Obama T-shirts for $12 a pop, money was tight.

"You'd think that people who spend $1,000 on dinner might have a couple bucks more," said Dodd, 52, of St. Paul. He had not sold a single shirt in an hour of trying. "Well, you know what? It's the everyday people who are my best patrons."

Everyday people buy T-shirts, but when it comes to financing campaigns, people who can burn a grand get the face time.

Mike and Dena Johnson, of south Minneapolis, were holding hands outside the Hilton, hoping to catch a glimpse of Obama (no luck; the candidate arrived at a secured entrance).

Mike, 41, is a barber; Dena just lost her job as a TV station mailroom clerk.

They were high school sweethearts, have two kids heading for college and hold high hopes that Obama, black like themselves, might make a difference for the country.

"He didn't grow up in money," Mike said. "He grew up normal, like most Americans."

The Johnsons would have loved to meet Barack Obama. But $1,000 a plate? Not likely.

"Give me some newspaper money and I will go in," Mike joked. Haircuts are $15 at his barbershop on Chicago Avenue, so I did the math: He and Dena could sup with Obama for only 133.3 haircuts. "I guess I shouldn't have taken off," Mike said. "I should have stayed at the shop and kept cutting,"

A grand doesn't go far these days. But for Kelly Shelton, it has to last most of a month.

Shelton, 53, parks cars a block from the Hilton, at 9th Street and Third Avenue. His take-home, after taxes and child support, is about $1,200 a month. He plans to vote for Obama but couldn't believe people paid $1,000 to see him.

"There ain't no rich Democrats, are there? None I've ever seen. A thousand to see Obama? It ain't worth it to me. I can see him on TV for free!"

Obama dropped in on Minneapolis to make another big score with high-rolling Democrats so close to winning they can almost smell it. They aren't going to let a little thing like principles stand in the way.

Wednesday's private event offered a select few the chance to share Obama's table for $28,500. You ask me, anyone who can spend $28,500 on dinner without ruining their appetite needs spiritual re-booting.

The Democratic croupiers are only doing what Republicans have done for decades. George Bush, to name one, has plucked Minnesota fat-cats for millions and has not been shy about it. But anyone who hopes for change and thinks Obama is their champion is entitled to ask what the heck the deal is.

Obama has shattered every campaign finance record. He has raised $340 million (much of it from small donors, but a lot from big ones, too), has spent $272 million and has $72 million more in the bank, waiting to throw at the fall election. His cash on hand almost equals the totals spent by each campaign in 2004, when George Bush and John Kerry agreed to abide by public spending limits -- as every major candidate had done since the limits were established in 1971 in the hope of preventing campaigns from devolving into full-time money grubbing.

There's some change for you.

Big money started rolling in.

His campaign pulled in $52 million in June alone (twice the take of John McCain, whose fundraising is running at half of Obama's rate). Amusingly, Obama still claims to be a believer in public financing, and says he backed out only reluctantly, because his opponents are "masters at gaming this broken system."

There are a lot of game masters. To believe Obama isn't one, you must believe he came reluctantly to the Minneapolis Hilton and reluctantly accepted all those checks for amounts from $1,000 to $28,500.

I was a bit reluctant, myself.

I bought an Obama T-shirt from Clifford Dodd, just so he'd make a sale. Reluctantly, I said I liked the way it looked.