In a recent Barack Obama campaign ad, the senator says he will put “the middle class first.” His opponent John McCain has been touring rust belt states assuring us he won’t exhibit “indifference” to the plight of working people.

Unfortunately for those of us who want to believe them, everyone has a price, and corporate America is more than willing to pay.

McCain, once a proud crusader against moneyed interests, has been reduced to a puppet of big business. He has dropped his opposition to irresponsible tax cuts and offshore drilling; his campaign employs more than 60 federally-registered lobbyists.

Obama claims he is above the influence of special interest money because of his rejection of lobbyist cash and huge number of small donors.

The truth is, Obama is receiving even more cash from the super-wealthy than McCain is.

It’s true his campaign refuses money from political action committees, but his campaign has made use of wealthy bundlers siphoning money from key industries.

One-third of his campaign contributions (which make up almost half of his total funds) have been in donations of more than $1,000.

Obama, a former professor of politics, knows very well if he really wants to eliminate the influence of big donors, he wouldn’t have accepted anything except for small donations.

The effect on his policy platform has been devastating: he has backed off his support for a European-style single-payer universal health care system in favor of what amounts to a combination of tax cuts and subsidies for the HMO industry.

He flip-flopped on his opposition to amnesty for the telecommunications industry’s warrantless wiretapping. His Democratic Party followed suit; its upcoming convention has 75 official corporate sponsors.

With 35 years of governing policies written by corporate America all ravaging our economy at once, it is ordinary people who are being hurt the most.

I recently read this letter from a Vermont mother to her senator:

“I am a single mother with a 9-year-old boy. To stay warm at night my son and I would pull off all the pillows from the couch and pile them on the kitchen floor. By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother’s dining room furniture.

“I have no oil for hot water. We boil our water on the stove and pour it in the tub. I’d like to order one of your flags and hang it upside down at the capital building … we are certainly a country in distress.”

Maybe that mother should be the one running for president instead.

- Zaid Jilani is a junior from Kennesaw majoring in international affairs.