America, Inc.

Lets start with basic facts - the top 10 donors to each presidential campaign:
Kerry: 1. University of California (education) 2. Harvard University (education) 3. Time Warner (media & entertainment) 4. Goldman Sachs (business/finance) 5. Citigroup (business/finance)

Bush: 1. Morgan Stanley (business/finance) 2. Merril Lynch (business/finance) 3. PricewaterhouseCooper (business/finance) 4. UBS Americas (business/finance) 5. Goldman Sachs (business/finance)

Notice the dominance of business, especially on the Republican side. Another point of comparison:
-Bush Top 20 Donors: ALL corporations or law firms
-Kerry Top 20 Donors: 16 out of 20 were corporations or law firms (the rest were universities)
It should also be noted that all of the top donors that gave money to both candidates (7 total), with exception of Microsoft, gave substantially more money to Bush than to Kerry but were obviously covering their influence bases in giving generously to both campaigns. If that alone isn't a clear indication that money contributions directly equate to influence and deferential treatment, I don't know what does. Why else would these companies give so much money to both campaigns? Because they know that the pure quantity of their contributions will buy them a seat at the policy table of whichever candidate wins. They obviously also think that Bush is more in tune with their desires and so contributed more to him.

Still think corporate money doesn't rule or at least unduly influence the policy decisions of this country? Go here for far more analysis and data:
http://www.opensecrets.org/presidential/index.asp

And then there is the tidy little story still being uncovered (and covered up) of Tom Delay (one of the leaders of the Republican party) taking what could basically be considered bribes (donations) in exchange for corporate-favorable policy decisions. To make it even worse (and that much more obvious that the Republicans are addicted to corporate lobbying and donations), the Republicans subsequently weakened US House of Representatives ethics rules solely for the purpose of covering Delay's corrupt ass! Go here for a full accounting of this mess:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/30/MNG24AINRP1.DTL