Through the latter part of the nineties and the early part of the last decade, the talk was about getting the money out of politics. Now its seems, it's become routine for a Presidential election to cost a billion dollars.

Bracing for a half-billion-dollar onslaught of outside GOP cash in 2012, President Barack Obama’s advisers are quietly working to bring back together the major donor base that produced a record-breaking fundraising haul in his first run for president.

In another decade or so, we may well be looking back on the billion dollar elections as cheap as more citizens, both American and corporate, realize how important the government, and especially the Presidency, is to everyone's activities and aspirations.

Obama raised 750 million for the 2008 election, and while his campaign team would no doubt like to repeat that, there are a lot more obstacles now than there were then. First and foremost is that this will no longer be the prospect of an historic presidency. You can only be the first black President once. No one really has any idea how much of his 2008 haul was due to the electorate Messiah infatuation, but my gut tells me that it was a lot; perhaps as much as 25%. All those people putting 20 bucks on their credit cards for Obama won't have either the motivation, or sadly, the spare twenty.

The Democrat's community-activist culture that roils in an endless cycle, of producing rage and providing targets for it, served to bite the hand that bankrolls them. Wallstreet isn't happy about being cast as the villain and resents the punitive measures taken against them by the former Democrat-controlled Congress.

Among the fundraising meccas that could prove most vexing is New York City, which ranked as the top metropolitan fundraising source for Obama’s presidential campaign three years ago, producing $42 million in donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan tracker of political money.

A good chunk of that cash came from hedge fund investors who were drawn to Obama’s pledges to usher in a new way of doing things in Washington. Although the White House sent senior aides, such as Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and Austan Goolsbee, to try to assuage the angst, not everyone has been mollified.

Daniel Loeb, founder of the Third Point Management hedge fund, wrote a scathing December rant to fellow Obama Wall Street bundlers – fundraisers who tap their own networks of friends to drive cash to the campaign — suggesting the perfect holiday gift for each of them: A book about battered wives who can’t leave their abusive husbands.

Political giving isn't sentimental by and large. The big bucks come from people with skin in the game, and with Democrats talking out both sides of their mouth over the past couple of years, the sense of betrayal is palpable.

Ultimately though, the best incentive for political giving comes from looking like a winner. While the talking points are about come back, people who donate serious money aren't easily gulled by the media dog and pony show. They can see which way the political winds are blowing for themselves and if Obama doesn't make some dramatic headway, a lot of donors will hedge their bets or simply look for a better return on their investment in other races.

Its a virtual certainty that the economy will be of no help to Obama or anyone else in the next two years. The recent elation over a small decrease in the unemployment rate is completely pathetic in light of how long the economy would have to roar like a twenty-thousand dollar crate motor just to recover the jobs lost since 2008. Sadly, as unlikely as that scenario is, it's what would be required before we could even begin to resolve the housing depression.

Frankly, I can't imagine any series of events, including a traditional wag-the-dog war, that could really turn this around except some really, really, really stupid moves by Congressional Republicans and/or the eventual nominee. Are you listening Sarah?

On the other hand, Republicans find themselves once again, in a remarkable confluence of good fortune. Congressional Republicans look to be a serious bunch and wired into the public mind for the most part. The enemies the Obama administration has made no longer fear him, and money on the Republicans looks like a safe bet. The worst that can happen is Obama gets another term--with a Republican Congress. If I was in the energy business (and I am...), I'd pull out that checkbook early and often.

Add to that the new reality of American media--we are no longer out-manned and out-gunned. We have, dare I suggest it, achieved rough parity, at least of a quality that what we used to call the mainstream media can no longer depend on an unchallenged narrative. The irony is that with the end of the de jure fairness doctrine in the late eighties, we have replaced it with a de facto fairness doctrine, where every point of view can be weighed in the balance with an opposing perspective with a mere click of the remote control or the mouse.

I may be somewhat premature in making this assessment, but I really think we are on the brink of an American renaissance. Let us banish the darkness.