In the political firestorm following Wisconsin’s recall election in favor of Gov. Scott Walker, a plethora of political pundits have weighed in on the outcome and from it, prophesied the future of American politics.  

But the recall election has less to do with President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as it has to do with campaign financing and purchasing votes. A previous editorial commented on the alarming amount of money donated to Walker by out-of-state corporate donors.  

Just as out-of-state money influenced the Wisconsin election, foreign money is finagling its way into national presidential campaigns.   The Associated Press reported on an interview with Sen. John McCain this past week, in which McCain criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowing corporations to make unlimited contributions to political action committees — thus, the rise of the Super PAC.  

McCain not only expressed his frustration over the ruling made in 2010 but also warned of foreign money making its way into the pro-Mitt Romney Restore Our Future PAC.   The senator singled out campaign contributor Sheldon Adelson, a casino and hotel magnate, who donated 10 million dollars to Romney’s PAC.   McCain believes profits from Adelson’s casino in Macau are being used for donations to the Republican presidential nominee:   “Obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign.”

Foreign money has no place in American politics, just as out-of-state donors had no right supplying funds for the recall election.   Our political system is becoming a global marketplace; instead of a facility for democracy, elections are morphing into agenda-driven money pits, the puppeteers of which may not even be constituents.