You know this is happening, but still, the numbers shock.

On NPR's Morning Edition today, Steve Inskeep discusses this year's presidential campaign spending with two political strategists, Mark McKinnon (Republican) and Mark Mellman (Democrat). Among the statistics McKinnon offered:

• Spending by the Obama and Romney campaigns will reach "a minimum of $4 billion - much more than has ever been spent historically."
• "The Koch Brothers themselves" - the libertarian billionaire industrialists who are determined to have President Obama defeated - "will spend more money in this election cycle than the entire presidential campaign of John Kerry in 2008."

Every day, I get e-mails from conservative groups predicting everything but the end of the world if Obama is re-elected: the end of capitalism, the end of gun rights, the end of religious rights, the takeover of US sovereignty by the UN.

I'm still waiting, though, for some sign that they're worrying about the end of democracy thanks to the Supremes' Citizens United decision.