Straining to Reach Money Goal, Obama Presses Donors, The New York Times. 

After months of record-breaking fund-raising, a new sense of urgency in Senator Barack Obama’s fund-raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon it.

Hot-button election: How the internet drives the US Campaign, Financial Times. 

Modern politics is still a face-to-face business but, as practiced in the 2008 election, it relies on the effective use of increasingly sophisticated technology. From industrial-scale database marketing to softer “web 2.0” technologies such as online social networking, the rival campaigns are using many of the same technologies that are now heavily deployed by corporate America to try to motivate and mobilize their supporters.