I recently read an article on the New York Times about "Donors Linked to the Clinton's Shift to Obama" and it got me thinking about the amount of money going into the 2008 Presidential Elections.
It seems to me like the 2008 campaign is becoming an auction and bidders are becoming floaters. I thought supporters kept it in the family, I guess not. "A list of Mr. Obama's top fund-raisers released Sunday showed the extent to which the Democratic Party establishment, once presumed to back Mrs. Clinton, has become more fragmented and drifted into her rival's camp, lending the early stages of the Democratic primary campaign the feeling of family feud" (NY Times). When I first read this, I wondered if that was legal jumping of ship.
I never really knew what when into financing a presidential candidate. Senator Hillary Clinton has raised $19.6 million for the primary, and $6.9 million for use in the general election. Senator Barack Obama has raised $24.8 million for the primary and a mere $1 million for the general elections. What crazy about all this money, is the fact that it has been raised in (FIRST QUARTER). I can't even begin to image what the second quarter will look like.
I can't even begin to think about how you spend all this money. I wonder what this election will be like given the fact that campaign budgets are so high, will it be about commercials, advertisements or the debates? Will campaigns be really negative or remain positive and who will throw the first curve ball and what will it cost?
The more I think about it the more it sickens me to see the kind of money invested in these campaigns when we have homeless people on the streets, children who can't read or go to college because their parents can't afford it, people who have not been able to heat their homes because oil prices are so high, and soldiers over in Iraq dying. I guess I look at all the money and wonder what if their was a cap on what you could campaign with and the rest that you raise must go towards a good cause in the world.
1 comment:
I recently had this discussion with someone about how much money these candidates are recieving and I raised the same question - how do they have all of this money when there are so many deserving issues going on in our country that could use it? The only thing I can really think of is that allocating money in this country seems to be a huge problem to most people anyway. As selfless as we would like to think our favorite candidate can be, it seems highly unlikey that they would do something with this money not pertaining to their campaign. Even if they did, it would raise more issues. If they give money to one group, what about the other people who need it? What about the people who donated the money to the candidates? They donated it knowing it would go to the campaign and if they used it for something else that could stir up controversy. Then again, if a candidate used the money for our country's issues - could that aid their campaign? Possibly, but it's unrealistic. Perhaps candidates will argue if they use their money in the best way possible to aid their campaign - they will take care of all of these problems. To me, this is just how it is. The amount of money they have is disgusting, but the amount of money that alot of other people in this world have is disgusting too. It's nice to think that there could be alternate ways to use this money especially coming from these powerful indivdiuals who care about our country - but unfortunately it's just how it is.
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