Why do we assume that big money control who wins an election?

It makes a good narrative. But a certain amount of funding for advertisements is necessary for exposure. As for the rich, I think they're just bored with nothing to spend all their loot on. As for the rest of us, we believe what we are told.

-- Mal

The "what does money matter" opinion folks have not been paying much attention, or have failed to grasp what CU means or are counter-ops.

The big spender simply has more resources available to motivate voters.

who shouldn't even have a flicker of hope.
BTW - I think the strategy of money is to make the less likely voters stay away from voting and drive turnout down, not to get people out to vote.

geometrically. Kind of like what it costs to buy a Super Bowl Ad. Price goes up every year...supply and demand. Politics are the same.

The SCOTUS decision made many of us more skeptical about big money. I think even though Citizen's United was scrapped before the 2012 election, it didn't have much of an effect. President Obama was an incumbent with a strong organization and strong fundraising much of it from grassroots like people on DU. Romney was a bumbling idiot that couldn't pull his head out of his ass and got trounced.

I think 2016 is going to be much different though. Money is going to be more of an issue with no incumbent running and superpac's attacking other candidates with unlimited money. I know it sounds like gloom and doom, but this is going to be a very ugly election cycle. Maybe, just maybe an ugly election is what is needed to convince enough Americans to get behind a constitutional amendment to undo Citizen's United.

Bribery is the most sacred of all political activities.

if people were not susceptible to the bullshit, they wouldn't throw so much money into it.

But, they are, so it works.

Karl Rove.

"A post-election analysis by the Sunlight Foundation found that very few of the candidates supported by Rove's groups emerged victorious on Tuesday. Just 1.29% of the $104 million spent by American Crossroads backed a winning candidate. Crossroads GPS fared slightly better, achieving a 14.4% return on its $70 million in reported spending."

Full article here.