Last week I noted the very large number of small donations Senator Obama has received, especially compared to other first tier presidential candidates. Today the NY Times sheds some light: “Like other candidates, he has worked hard to cultivate a network of bundlers, who can solicit the checks from individual donors for the legal maximum of $2,300 that are the mainstay of any major campaign. But to capitalize on his celebrity, Mr. Obama’s campaign has also employed novel tactics— like counting sales of $5 speech tickets or $4.50 Obama key chains as individual contributions– to pump up his numbers and transform grass-roots enthusiasm into more useful forms of support. No other campaign is known to have listed paraphernalia sales as donations.”