A Rich Man's Game

Forget people power. Billionaires are fueling the money race to the White House

Photograph by Jamie Chung for TIME

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina could have put the staff Ping-Pong table anywhere, but he chose a piece of carpet right outside his office at the Chicago headquarters. "It's part of what I learned when I did my tour of all the tech companies," he says, referring to a trip he took through Silicon Valley in early 2007 to learn how to build the most technologically savvy political campaign in history. "You have got to have fun things for them to do. Because they will stay longer. They will be happier. They will do cool stuff."

Never mind the constant bip-bop,...

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