i'm surprised if anyone is surprised by this. the u.s. has an extremely corrupt political culture. (or at least it would be considered to be corruption in other countries. here, it's just called campaign contributions). when policy-makers in the world's most powerful country are for sale, foreign countries that have the money would be crazy not to try to work the system in their favor.
public financing of campaigns seems to be on the wane in the u.s., at least when it comes to financing supplied by u.s. taxpayers. maybe public financing by foreign taxpayers will be the wave of the future!
