Bush is funding McCain's campaign for Bush's third term

McCain has $96 million on hand to fund his negative campaign against Barack Obama. Over three quarters of that amount, $75 million, comes from the Republican National Committee, which means three quarters of McCain's money is coming via the fundraising prowess of George W. Bush.

Bush is making it happen for McCain:

President Bush's popularity has tanked, but boy can he still bring in the cash.

He's raked in close to a billion dollars, the political fundraiser in chief, during his White House tenure.

In all, Bush has personally raised more than $968 million for the Republican Party, GOP candidates and his own re-election campaign and inauguration during his two terms in office. And he's not finished.

He's now lost a big part of the national spotlight to presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, but he remains a formidable force on the fundraising circuit, mostly at private affairs closed to the media. His total so far this year is roughly $70 million.

Bush spent 90 minutes recently at a California winery tucked in a hillside in Napa Valley to help wring $850,000 from deep-pocket donors. That's $9,444 a minute.

Obama is running against Bush's third term, which brings us again back to the best ad of the cycle so far, which was, of course, not done by the Obama campaign. (Note to Obama's top media consultant, Jim Margolis from GMMB, watch this ad and learn from it):