Doug Robinson of Utah's Deseret Morning News doesn't mince words in calling money the "real hallmark" of the presidential campaign. The campaign finance experts he talks to don't agree on whether that's a good thing, but they agree that money has indeed become the measure of men, and women in the race.

Political types across the country boggle at the campaign finance number being reported:

"The amount of money being spent is obscene," says Dan Jones, the renowned Utah-based pollster who has monitored every presidential campaign since 1962.

For instance, Obama has raised a total of $237 million since he began his campaign, smashing the previous record of $185.6 million raised by President Bush in 2004. And we've still got eight months to go.

And as your mother was fond of reminding you, money doesn't grow on trees, so the candidates have to get it the old-fashioned way: with a phone to one ear.

According to Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, if a candidate wants to raise $100 million in a year, he or she must raise $250,000 every day — or, in other words, collect five of the legal maximum $2,300 individual contributions every single hour of every single day, including weekends, for one year.

Another guy Robinson talks to thinks all this money is a sign of increased voter engagement, but as we've seen time and again, the growth of small donor participation has been wildly overstated -- big money still dominates, which means the same people who've been giving big in elections past are back at it, but with a much longer primary season in which to spread their money around.