Sen. Barack Obama may hold a slim lead over Sen. John McCain in the presidential polls, but McCain tops Obama in pushing the envelope in the amount that a donor can give his campaign.  For Obama it’s $33,100. For McCain its $70,000.  Both campaigns have created joint fundraising committees that manage to slip through campaign finance laws limiting contributions. Each candidate has more than 2,000 donors that have given more than $25,000 to their campaigns through September, according to the New York Times. The two fundraising committees combined have raised nearly $300 million.  The biggest group of funders for both campaigns come from the securities and investment industry, the Times reports, including those firms that are drawing down from the $700 billion bailout that Congress just approved.  Fundraising laws allow voters to donate a maximum of $4,600 to a presidential candidate, $2,300 for the primary election and $2,300 for the general election. But rules allow donors to give as much as $28,500 to national parties and $10,000 to state parties. So candidates create the joint committees and split up a donor’s contribution to the various organizations, and add a few others into the mix. Obama’s maximum is less than McCain’s because his campaign chose to bunch fewer committees into his Victory Fund.  So in the “Through the Looking Glass” world of campaign finance, maximum doesn’t really mean maximum and limits don’t really apply.  Then again, we could turn to a Clean Elections system where candidates would raise a small donation from a set number of voters and devote their time and resources to discussing the issues with their constituents.