OK, this is totally a ploy to go to Barcelona and call it a work trip: the hot new trend in campaign finance is scouting for cash among the American ex-pat population and the leading contenders in the presidential race are grabbing their passports and heading overseas.Here are an interesting couple of paragraphs:  Advances in electronic communications have made voting from abroad easier, which drives interest from American voters. Less than five years ago, Americans abroad who wanted to register to vote often had no idea how to begin, in part because each state has different requirements, said Condliffe. Now, voters can go to Web sites run by Democrats Abroad or Republicans Abroad that walk the reader through directions for registering and voting in specific U.S. states.[. . .]The candidates’ rush for the international terminal also has been abetted by the virtual arms race in campaign fundraising for 2008. Most of the major candidates have opted out of the three-decades-old public financing system for presidential primaries — which comes with the strings of spending limits attached — and are competing with each other to build their own, much larger campaign treasuries. “Since none of the major candidates are taking public money, most are expecting to need to raise more much money than in the past,” said campaign finance expert Larry Noble.A strange mix of voter-enfranchisement with regards to making it easier for citizens abroad to vote, and the "arms race" for cash that has candidates chasing money around the globe, taking even more time away from non-fundraising-oriented campaign activities.