Square hits the big time. But big money still rules.

Share it fairly 

But don't take a slice of my pie 
- Pink Floyd

Square and Team Obama, along with Team Romney, were eager to tell the world:

President Obama’s re-election campaign announced that it would immediately begin using Square, a mobile payments start-up company based in San Francisco, with campaign staffers and some approved volunteers. “Squares are being sent to our campaign offices across the country,” said Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign.

The announcement is just the first part of the strategy the Obama campaign plans to employ for mobile donations over the coming months.

“Eventually we want to make a version of the Obama Square application available to everyone from within the App Store,” Ms. Hogan said, referring to Apple’s iTunes store for apps. “Someone who is a supporter of the campaign can then download the app, get a Square attachment and can go around collecting donations.” The application would automatically send donation money directly to the Obama campaign.

Ms. Hogan said the Obama campaign has worked with Square to develop a unique mobile application that allows people to make mobile donations that are compliant with the Federal Election Commission’s rules.

An F.E.C. spokeswomen said the Square application would need to collect the name, address, city, state and ZIP code, and occupation and employer of the donor on a smartphone. All of this information, along with the date of the contribution, would be collected from a Square-enabled smartphone application.

Which is awesome!

Smartphones, mobile money, crowdsourcing.

What's not to like?

Nothing. Except for all the other stuff.

Look, I'm a believer. I realize that smartphones can connect us all. They are the most personal computing devices ever and offer creative and economic liberation potential.

But let's not kid ourselves about the US presidential election this year. The driving force behind Obama's campaign stops and relentless advertising and the various "issue" infomercials, will come primarily from big money donors.

Not from little $5 and $10 donations. Which, admittedly, make for a nice feel-good story but aren't the real story.