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Thursday, July 10, 2008

How Much Does It Cost To Be President?

Man, they have sunk some coin into the quest to be the next President of the United States. How much does it cost to buy, I mean to win that gig? They have been running for 3 years, haven't they? I can't remember another election that has taken so long. Did they start earlier this time? They haven't even gotten started with the real nasty things yet! Both sides are guilty, so don't give me any of that my team is better then your team crap!

I saw that McCain raised 22 million dollars last month. May ask for what? In a month? If he needs to spend all that money to win, he is going to have a hard time being on a budget! Everything is so specialized now. Don't you wish we could go back to a time when you could just go someplace like Tate & McMann and have their ad guru, a guy name Stevens, throw a snappy ad together to woo public opinion your way. The problem is that now we have specialist that can figure these things out for us. I think what they specialize in is taking money! How much went to ads, and how much went to strategists?

I can hear the Democrats snickering about that, but they are not any better. They spent a ton of money in their primary, it did go down to the wire. Did they announce how much was spent up to this point? Why do I have a feeling I don't want to know? Can poor people run for office anymore? It is grotesque how much has been spent, and how much they will spend yet. Obama ask his people if they would give money to pay off Clinton's debt. He reminded them that if he hadn't won, he would have debt. Whaaaa? They spent millions on their campaigns they didn't have? Sounds like they both already thought they WERE President!

Isn't there something that can be done? Can't someone put a cap on how much is spent, and how long this whole mess goes on? The Spaniards have a good idea. They give the candidates a time frame to campaign, and a lump of cash to spend. I likes it! I see the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the men and women that are trying to convince me that they offer what I need. Let me tell ya what I need. I need someone to make my hall bathroom handicap accessible. I need a new side porch, but I need one that can be changed at a later date if I need a ramp. Unless either of these guys can offer me those things, I'm not terribly sure I have confidence in either one!

4 comments:

Slammermike said...

I think the campaign started early this time because it is the first Presidential election where there hasn’t been an incumbent president or Vice-President running for the office in I don’t know how many years. (At least back to the 50’s I think)

The President of the United States earns $400,000 a year. That means that is a person successfully runs for 2 terms as President then they stand to make $3.2 million for those 8 years. Just think Melvin Mora is making $7.9 million for this baseball season with the Orioles.

According to the Los Angeles Times as of May 2008 Hilary Clinton’s Campaign is $21 million in debt.

I wonder how much each vote will cost when the entire campaign and election is done.

Just as a side thought many of these people are elected officials now. Who performed their job while they were out on the campaign trail? Did they take a leave of absence without pay?
A 3 year campaign is half of a 6 year term for a Senator and a full term and a half for a Congressman.

Here is what some of the major candidates haven raised in their effort to become President.
Candidate Raised Spent Cash On Hand Debts
Barack Obama $287,397,945 $244,250,611 $43,147,333 $304,162

John McCain $119,594,596 $83,633,159 $35,961,436 $1,268,973

Hilary Clinton $229,422,030 $21,000,000


Other candidates who have competed in the race:

Candidate Total Raised
Barr, Bob $183,934

Biden, Joe $11,909,212

Brownback, Sam $4,242,815

Dodd, Chris $17,739,933

Edwards, John $51,701,071

Gilmore, Jim $392,794

Giuliani, Rudy $58,672,307

Gravel, Mike $521,396

Huckabee, Mike $16,075,476

Hunter, Duncan $2,650,336

Keyes, Alan $353,016

Kucinich,Dennis $4,511,648

Nader, Ralph $921,230

Paul, Ron $34,494,426

Richardson, Bill $23,030,203

Romney, Mitt $107,065,257

Tancredo, Tom $8,276,120

Thompson, Fred $23,451,179

Thompson, Tommy $1,213,253

Vilsack, Tom $2,079,874

Anonymous said...

Ever get the feeling it just don't matter? Get one question answered. I dare you. Somebody we never heard of picks a candidate, and next thing we know, there's no choice in either party. Obama, McCain, Clinton, hell, any of the names slammer said, I think they're all the same person. Some are lighter, or darker, or male or female, but essentially, they're all interchangeable. Every one of them would lie the same lies and say or do anything, get elected, then it's back to business as usual. Bill Clinton never had a working job in his life, came out of the White House a multi millionaire. Nice trick at $400,000 per year. No questions asked though. Wouldn't matter anyway, nobody's going to answer the questions if you did ask. Democrat, Republican, Independent, makes no difference. Even race makes no difference. This cycle, every black person practically is ecstatic over Obama, simply because he's black. Last election, I think we had a black man running for senate, what happened? Nothing makes any sense that you can figure.Maybe someone will pick this thread up and I'll understand one day. Good Luck.

Slammermike said...

Michael Steele ran for Senate. The difficulty for him was he was a Black Republican in a Democratic state. He was the Lt. Governor and was running for the seat that long time Senator Paul Sarbanes had vacated.

Unfortunately for Mr. Steele he was running in a Democratic state against a longtime Democratic Congressman Ben Cardin.

Cardin was running for Sarbanes seat and it just so happened that Saarbanes son was running for Cardin's seat in Congress.

The democratic party had really organized that election to take the State House back from Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich. So the democratic party was a well oiled machine again.
Michael Steele is a very intelligent & well spoken. I have heard his named mentioned as a possible Vice President candidate for John McCain.

awb said...

Is Steele black enough for Jesse Jackson? I'd hate for Mr Jackson to spend the years he has left threatening to cut the nuts off of black politicians that don't push his agenda.