Spare change you can believe in
In 1980, the total spent on the presidential campaign by the three major candidates was less than $100 million. 1980 was such a long time ago. Now just one candidate has raised and spent three quarters of a billion dollars, or maybe even much more than that. AP:
Barack Obama, who rewrote the book on presidential fundraising, amassed more than $745 million during his marathon campaign, more than twice the amount obtained by his rival, Republican John McCain. In his latest finance report, Obama reported raising $104 million in more than five weeks immediately before and after Election Day. It was his second biggest fundraising period and a fitting coda to a successful presidential bid that shattered fundraising records. In the end, Obama still had $30 million left over.
And the interesting thing is that the candidate, now president-elect, is still raising campaign money. (Bonus question: as VDH might have asked, if it had been a Republican who had been raising all this loot, would the AP have used the phrase “fitting coda” anywhere in its story?)
December 6th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Buying an election is only evil if Republicans are alleged to do it. If the Big O does it, it is a measure of his sainthood (and certainly not corrupt dishonest online fund raising).
December 6th, 2008 at 8:02 am
That’s about $10 a vote, so I don’t think the election was bought. The real problem is that both parties are looting the public. There isn’t a fiscal conservative to be found.
December 6th, 2008 at 9:22 am
$10 a vote is massively more than in any other election; and significantly, if not massively, more than what McCain “paid” per vote.
I could, but won’t, go into to detail to show why “$10 a vote” is meaningless (look at where the Big O spent His money – it was NOT on a per vote basis).
December 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
McCain was disorganized, Obama was an organizer.
And, what’s a billion now a days? Nothing. Chump change for the Presidency.
Did anyone notice any NPR/Volvo driving, get the money out of election types jumping off bridges? I didn’t. Maybe I’ll go to the library and read through The Nation to see about their horror at Obama buying the election. I’ll get back to you on that.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Well, Obama’s fund raising works out to more than $12 per vote. The marginal utility of his expenditures over McCain’s does not bode well for the next election.
Watching what was happening in the Georgia run-off leads me to believe Sarah is for real. The left-wing consensus is that the black vote didn’t show up because they had no “dog in that race”. What happens after 2 years or 4 when the leftwing is fed up with the Clinton-Obama-Bush-Cheney axis?