Obama won by some six million votes among well over 100 million cast.

He also outspent McCain. Massively:

The Illinois senator harvested more campaign cash than anyone before him, using both the Internet and traditional high-roller dinners to bring in more than $650 million from some 3 million donors for his presidential campaign. The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, raised less than half that amount, as did George W. Bush and Al Gore combined in 2000.

Obama’s fundraising revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are financed and may kill the Watergate-era system of providing public money for the general election.

See also the tragic defeat of the Massachusetts initiative to abolish income tax, where various Unions and other Democrat Establishment phenomena weighed in heavily to support the status quo:

Carla Howell, the former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate who led the effort to repeal the tax, blamed the defeat on the fund-raising gap.

"The teachers unions spent 100 times more on advertising than we did. The message to voters: advertising works."

Obama’s victory represents a huge escalation in the political funding arms-race. Had a Republican won by such a killer financial artillery barrage, imagine the liberal squeals of Foul.

That said, there is some chicken and egg here – such an influx of money comes from people liking the product. And Obama’s team used the Internet for fund-raising better than anyone else. Cleverness has been rewarded.

What a binge the 2012 election will be. Only 208 weeks away.