The Los Angeles Times — when it’s not busy sitting on a videotape that could cripple Barack Obama’s chances on Tuesday — notes that the frontrunner who’s spent more money than any presidential candidate in history is still looking for more of your cash:

It seems like only a week ago that The Ticket was whining about Barack Obama whining that after raising $605 million through September to buy the presidency, he was asking all of us one last time for just $10 more for some reason.

And we figured out that, October money aside, he’d have to spend $12.5 million a day just to unload September’s haul by Nov. 4.

The Democrat is already outspending the Republican by three and four-to-one, which if it was the other way around would surely be unconscionable.

So last night Obama dumped several million bucks on several TV networks, which they don’t mind, to talk at us slickly for 27 minutes about his change that we need.

And when that was over, pingo, here comes another e-mail from Windy City HQ. You’ll never guess what. He wants more money. More. Still.

It was a blessedly short message. He called us by our first name and signed only his first name; so we must be pals. He put the entire fate of his historic campaign in our hands. “The campaign is in your hands,” he wrote.

With just 5 days left in the campaign, and with little buys left that could affect the outcome, the only logical reason for Barack Obama to be collecting money now is for expenses after election day. And there’s a limited range of possibilities — paying the transition staff a little more, throwing a more extravagant inaugural ball, or bringing litigation to challenge the results on election day.

If that’s what Obama is planning, he could at least be candid about it ahead of time. After all, given the lawbreaking of one of the campaign’s subsidiaries, it might make sense to get ready to go to court.