The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.

This is the real reason America needs Obama.

Obama takes no donations from lobbyists or PACs, and he's gotten the Democratic Party to follow his lead.

On Good Morning America Thursday, ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos reported "the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists, will no longer take contributions from PACs" in keeping with Obama's well-publicized policy.

"The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington lobbyists and from today going forward the DNC makes that pledge as well," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

Lawrence Lessig's Change Congress project highlights this as the first and most important change that needs to occur in American politics to end the Washington culture of corruption.

(Meanwhile, during the time McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, that committee set a record for unauthorized appropriations.)