So there was this high school in an area I won't disclose... Every year, each of the clubs would have fundraisers to help them prepare for the coming semester. Everyone did it and it was really no big deal, but there were to clubs, the Drama Club and the Chess Club, who would always raise funds at the same time and decided to race to see who could get the most money in a month. Each club would go out into the community and go door-to-door in an effort to raise their money...

The Chess Club always had somewhat of an advantage, because their members were always a bit more intellectual than the Drama Club. It's members had a high success rate once they left high school and went to college and, on the average, landed nice, secure jobs and they were very well off. The Drama Club, on the other hand, was not, on average, quite so well off, so they were consistently plagued with a slower income rate simply because they didn't have support of adults who used to participate in these fundraisers in the past. So the Drama Club was always calling for a different way of raising money... Instead of going into the community and asking all the adults, they wanted to ask just the other kids for money. They kept this call up for a while and the Chess Club was never really interested, but this year? Both clubs announced, in public, that they would both ask for money only from folks who were 18 years and younger. There would be a limit, too, on how much someone could give all at once, so nobody could go to the rich person's house and get a huge bunch of money all at once.

So! The clubs went out and started their fundraiser with the usual gusto! The Chess Club had won the last few years and they were looking to keep the winning streak going... They still went to the houses they knew were better off, but they only asked for money from the kids and not the parents. One of the fathers actually tried to give money like he did every year, but the Chess Club was quite adamant about keeping their promise. They would only accept money from kids 18 years and younger, and they could only give $30. "Alright," the father said, "But that's now how we did it when I was in the Chess Club. Part of our fundraiser was having the connections to the money... It's how it works in the real life, too." But even when tempted, the Chess Club wasn't going to break their promise. Soon enough, everyone was making a big deal about the agreement the clubs had made and everyone commended them on their efforts to make the race more fair.

Then there was the Drama Club. They didn't have the connections that the Chess Club had, but with the new rules, finding kids who wanted to depart with 20 or 30 bucks was easy to find. It was so much easier for them to stay in the race... They knew they had a chance this time. While they were at someone's house, they learned that the kid's uncle had come into a nice amount of money and was interested in helping the Drama Club out, since he was also a part of the club when he was young and knew what it was like to lose to the Chess Club. He tried to offer them money, but they declined, so he tried giving money to his nephew, but it turns out that he had already given the club 10 dollars. "Okay," the uncle said, "How about I give money to my son and he gives you the money. Would that work?" The Drama Club was against the idea at first, but it didn't take long for the uncle to convince them that they deserved to win after so long. In addition to giving his son the money to give the club, he presented the idea that he would give them a few transactions of 10 dollars... It would take a little longer to get the money, but maybe nobody would notice such small amounts.

So that's what the Drama Club started doing. They started telling the adults that they could give money to their kids, as long as they were under 18 (and some donors were even 2 months old), and they could accept the money. If they wanted to give more, they could, but it had to be over the course of a few days so nobody would notice. All this time, the Chess Club was still out there honoring the agreement both of them had made to the school and they were only visiting each house once and only asked for up to 30 dollars. Soon, though, they started seeing flyers placed around town that announced that the Drama Club was needing money, and the flyer even had an email address to which you could PayPal the donation. That worried some of the Chess Club, because they didn't have nearly enough money to spend on that many fliers and still have a chance of winning, so they simply ramped up their door-to-door visits.

When the race drew to a close and all the funds were counted up, the Chess Club had raised almost $2,000, which was more than they expected, but far less than they usually drummed up. The Drama Club, on the other hand, blew them away with a massive $40,000 account. The Drama Club was heralded as the new race winner, finally knocking the Chess Club off their winning streak. While the high school was praising the Drama Club and beginning to plan the party that night, the Chess Club frantically read the Drama Club's financial records, which were always put on display when the race ended. There they found hundreds of donations that they all agreed not to take. The Drama Club didn't even bother to hide any of it! It was all right there in their financial records... One of the 2 month old babies was even at the school with her mother. The Chess Club members tried to get everyone's attention, pointing out all the bad donations. Some were even over the 30 dollar limit... There were some that even logged $100! "Look!" they cried, trying to get someone's attention. "They broke their promise! Here's one of the donors in a stroller... Someone gave 70 dollars over the limit in one donation!"

But nobody heard them... They didn't even care, either. They were all too overjoyed at the fact that the Drama Club had finally knocked the Chess Club off their high horse and they took it as a sign that the community supported the Drama Club more than the Chess Club. Enrollments started flooding in to the Drama Club and some people even transferred to them from the Chess Club... The war was on. What used to be a fun game had now turned ugly when the Drama Club broke their promises. It ushered in a whole new way of raising money for the race, and the Chess Club wasn't going to let it happen again.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of the high school... And if you think there's a political message behind it, then you only know me too well! I wrote it myself, actually, and I tried to make it sound like it was just a random story... I had to catch myself and omit certain terms that would alert people to the fact. But for those of you wondering: The Drama Club is Barack Obama and the Democrat party... The Chess Club is John McCain and the Republican party. It's pretty much clear that Obama bought the White House with his clearly questionable fundraising tactics. He didn't exactly buy votes directly, no, but he accepted donations from people he not only promised not to take money from, but from people who should not be influencing American politics at all, and he used all that money to literally flood the media with commercicals and to inundate people with party-funded programs to get people to vote. Don't believe me? Go read the article for yourself.