$100 million and counting
My latest estimates (and re-inforced by comments from Congressional Quarterly’s Craig Crawford this AM on msNBC’s Morning Joe) indicate that the current batch of candidates for president in 2008 spent over $100 million dollars in the last quarter on their campaigns! Some of the candidates are burning through over a million dollars a week as they march toward the real beginning of the campaign season this fall.
What does it all mean?
Consultants are making money hand over fist and the voters still have very little idea about what the candidates really stand for - and believe it or not, that’s what the consultants are actually trying to do, keep the voters in the dark about who their candidates really are.
You see, if the campaigns lay it all out on the table early on and tell the public about all the “wonderful” things that their candidate believes in and intends to do if elected, the likelihood of that candidate winning is null. So instead, what you have is a bunch of consultants playing defense and working very hard to make sure their guy (or gal) doesn’t say anything stupid (and oh, yeah spend lots of money on things that the consultants can derive a fee from like advertising, polling and research).
In the end what you have is nothing more than an economic development engine for states like Iowa and New Hampshire - which isn’t all that bad of an idea.
Come to think of it, maybe Ohio should jump the whole line for Superer Duperer Tuesday and plan it’s 2008 primary in December of 2007. Just think what it would do for our economy during the holiday season.
