Show Me the Money
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
First let me say that it is votes that win elections. This post is simply a statement that money helps the previous sentence to become a reality for candidates. Consider the following comments from today's Chicago Tribune...
When Al Gore endorsed Dean's candidacy, supporters contributed $695,658.75. After a group of fellow Democrats aired attack ads, donors defended him by pledging $552,214.62. Even on Halloween, Dean admirers gave $354,891.48.....
The loose change accounts for only a sliver of Dean's record-setting Internet fundraising, which in a recent 17-day period generated nearly $3 million...
Dean's money has allowed him to launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in a half-dozen states and deploy workers to 18 more. Why devote such time and attention to a national effort while most candidates still are focused on January's contests in Iowa and New Hampshire? Because he can.
And then a few paragraphs down comes the following nugget (even after both Lieberman and Gephardt both reached half million dollar fundraising goals on their websites this past month).
Last week, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts lent $850,000 of his personal wealth to his campaign and prepared to take out a far larger loan against the value of his Boston home. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut urged his staff to voluntarily delay one of their January paychecks for a month. And Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri asked his top aides to cut their salaries so he could keep running television ads.
And the sad thing? Sharpton who has about zero money and doesn't even campaign as hard as these guys is leading them in South Carolina and other state polls in the South. So once he beats them, will the media write them off. Either that or Sharpton could become the coveted "anti-Dean".
That was a joke.
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at December 22, 2003 09:37 PM
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The loose change accounts for only a sliver of Dean's record-setting Internet fundraising, which in a recent 17-day period generated nearly $3 million...
Pity all that money going to waste on Dean's hopeless presidential run, when the Dems should instead be funding the critical Senate races. We're looking at a filibuster proof Senate in 2004 - or at the least, any filibusters will be a lot more dicey with 55-57 Republicans instead of only 51.
I believe I have already responded to this filibuster proof majority meme before. Do the math, there is no way you are picking up 9 seats, let alone 5. That is of course unless there is a terrorist attack, threat level raised, or more Americans die before election day. Oh, wait a minute, that's already happening. And to think that Dean would have the balls to say that America isn't safer today because of the capture of Saddam.
