Republican Campaign Money Frightens Me. -=- How Can Anyone Compete?

[arwalden]

I don't recall the exact figure... but I've heard that Republicans have raised more money for their coffers than ever before.

I've also heard pundits argue that ALL the money of ALL the Democratic candidates COMBINED would never be able to come CLOSE to matching what the Republicans have at this early stage.

-- Allen

[virtualobserver]

1. I think that we are competing...If you add up the combined amount..

raised by all of the Democrats, it will be very similar to Bush's numbers

[diplomats]

4. But the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee

and Republican Congressional Campaign Committee have raised a ton of money, too, and their Dem counterparts aren't even close. I know money isn't everything, but the gap is pretty daunting.

[virtualobserver]

5. You speak the truth.....

but I think that the new grass roots focus of Dems will eventually overwhelm the republicans (and BTW, I have consumed no mood altering substances while forming this opinion).

[diplomats]

12. LOL!

I hope you're right :)

[Delarage]

2. We need public financing of campaigns like in Arizona (I think)

But until then, the Republicans still have to deal with the fact that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. No amount of PR or slick ads can cover the mess they've made.

[alcuno]

3. They're going to need it.

They can't run on their record so somehow they need to persuade people to vote against their economic self-interests. Throwing money at the problem is all they've got.

[QC]

6. We could turn it against them.

You know, hammer away at the point that the oil companies and Enron etc. etc. want Bush to be president so bad that they're giving him hundreds of millions of dollars. Then, of course, brush off Al Gore's "people versus the powerful" rhetoric and argue that the White House is not for sale, not even to Enron and Exxon and Halliburton.

[Arianrhod]

31. I like your first point, but disagree with your second.

In its place, I would focus on the damage that Enron et al. have done to the average American. Mention jobs lost, pensions stolen, energy crises, embezzlement--and after each one, remind people that the men responsible for these crimes were never prosecuted, because they put * in office. Then I would ask a rhetorical question: Do you really want 4 more years of this?

[stevedeshazer]

7. Isn't this incredibly sad?

Whoever raises the most ca$h wins, I guess.

Janeane Garofalo asked the question, and I am paraphrasing here, but if Bush is so great, why does he have to raise $300 million to get elected?

I voted for Ralph Nader, in part because of his support of public financing of campaigns.

All you Nader-haters can get your underwear in a wad, but Ralph was right on this one.

From a big-business point of view, investing in Bush is a great deal. A few thousand can result in MILLIONS in profits via deregulation, tax breaks, and so on. Beats the stock market by a long shot.

[F.Gordon]

8. A 1/4 billion dollars

That will buy the kind of mind control that would have had Hitler c**ing in his pants. Add the Right Wing media circumventing the CFR, and the preferential treatment that the White House gets with the media (they can say anything they want, whenever they want) and you have a scary combination.

It bothers me that people think just because Bush* is down in the polls that this election will be a cakewalk. Reagan was under 50% approval in November of 1983 and initially trailed Mondale in the polls.

[poskonig]

9. Footpeople. Lots of them.

The Republicans have always had corporate money. The Democrats need to start winning on the ground like we do here in Chicago.

[grasswire]

11. well...

...they haven't raised that amount yet. And if things continue to trend OUR way, some of those potential Bush donors will back off as the real possibility of a Republican challenger to Bush emerges. Bush might have to spend $$ to fight off a primary challenger.

[Yupster]

25. And union phone banks

that's something the Republicans cannot match.

[Nazgul35]

10. easy...

look at my sig below.....

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. $160! Are you crazy!

Where am I going to find that kind of cash in a Chimp economy?

Pretty simple isn't it. And it changes the focus of quid pro quo.

Donate people! Even if it's a buck.

[leesa]

13. So What? Why does it frighten you?

They get all the air time they want anyway without the money. The money is bribe money. They are payments for services Bush either has or will render. The more they collect the more obvious it becomes.

[candy331]

18. Such

a shame this country stands for nothing but money/material. When the depression came about people still cared about each other and had a sense of belonging and helped each other but everything now is about the almighty dollar today. No money no help! Every solution seems to be to throw more money at it. When the money is gone or shall I say when it is finally acknowledged that it is already gone what is going to be the outcome?

[kanrok]

14. We gotta get out the vote

If everyone who can vote does, these pukes couldn't win an election for dog-catcher.

[im4edwards]

15. its really easy folks, the best message will be heard over the loudest

all we really have to do is to have the best message, the one that resonates with the people and delivered by someone who can really sell it.

It's not hard to see who I think has that message and the skill and grace to deliver it effectively. Snappy one liners ala Rev Al won't get it done, cocksure posturing ala Gephart won't get it done, a steady but affluent air ala Kerry won't get it done, a cocksure and arrogant air a la Dean won't get it done, having no message a la Clark won't get it done, a shrill and unpalpable message a la Kucinich or Braun won't get it done and Graham is a little too grandfatherly to get it done and we've already seen that Lieberman can't get it done.

Charismatic, convincing, honest and sincere. Edwards has everything in his toolkit and the total blackout surrounding him should tell you that someone or some group agrees with me.

[ThomWV]

16. Shit, You want to be frightened?

Think about this, all of the money raised by both partys to support the election for President next year will not equal the cost of operations for one week in Iraq, which we will surely be paying from now until then and past.

Thom

[Jose Diablo]

19. It is not just money

It is the message that counts. Sure money buys TV Ads, posters, ect. But it is NOT just the media.

Americans are not idiots. I know it seems that way, but it is not. Its about effecenctly getting a message out. Connecting to the voter.

This election will really be something I think. I firmly believe this time we will see the highest rate of voter turnout ever recorded in America because the people are really, really p*ssed-off.

[Justice]

20. Republicans are Relentless

I gave a modest sum to a republican governor running for relection last year. Before you jump all over me, I gave that money to support a colleague who had given me twice that for the democratic candidate I was supporting (and as part of my efforts, my work colleagues gave thousands to the dem candidate, in exchange for which I had to contribute this modest sum).

Anyway, because of that one contribution, I receive no less than 3 pieces of mail a month from the RNC or Bush or Cheney or some Republican candidate. I've also received multiple phone calls. It is amazing how organized they are.

[PurityOfEssence]

33. Like termites, fascists never sleep

Don't be daunted; their policies only benefit the few.

Let it motivate you to redouble efforts. They're evil, but they're very good at it. Unfortunately, there's some truth to that old stereotype of lefties being lazy. Things have heated up, though.

[Don_G]

21. Besides "Truth, Justice And The American Way?"

Superman had his Kryptonite; McSmirk has his attitude, the Clinton surplus he squandered plus a cost of how many lives for a price in the US and overseas and for what...?

Screw the "Thugs" and the attitude they can pay for....

Can Superman find a Phone Booth nowdays? Nope, he's got to come out of the closet with a cell phone in his hand with an additional $40+ bill. Batman has to worry about Asskrap and his cat fetish and Peter Parker has taken on a third part-time job to make sure Aunt May can afford the Doctors and medicine under "medicare" while attending college.

You and I are a part of "We The People..." and I think that we are pretty much fed up with lies and want to see concrete results written in anything other than Granite and Bible Verses.

Pardon my rant; my Mom died in part because she couldn't afford the advertising budget for her life-saving drugs and---being a good Christian widow---believed every f**king lie the Fundies told her about Regan/George the First and Dimbo.

I miss a lot of stuff; my Mom, sanity in the world and my childhood heroes like Superman, John Glenn, the Beatles (yes, I was there at Shea Stadium), an honest wage with benefits and the MGB I could afford on minimum wage....

'Nuff said.

[Loyal]

22. They have the money, we have the message.

And as George Bush will soon find out... actions speak louder than words!

[Capn Sunshine]

23. PLease allow me to introduce you to the new paradigm

I have to tell you Allen, the Dean organization is cognizant of the fundraising question. becuase we feel we have discovered something heretofore untried: internet fundraisig on a major scale

We are the number one fundraiser among the ten candidates by a wide margin. We average $52 per donation. We have raised two million in the past three days. We hopefully will have raised over ten million this past quarter. We are trying to raise 5 million in the last ten days of the quarter. Many campaigns have not taken this much in for the entire quarter. We will. In nickels and dimes. with over $1900 left per contributor before we hit the maximum. WE were so boggled by the concept actually working, for a time we seriously discussed not taking matching funds.

I'm telling you, this grassroots stuff is the REAL DEAL. This is the wave of the future. We can effectively be a counterbalance to lobbyists and corporate donors. Doing some simple math puts the fundraising potential of just the Dean organization at well over 600 million. Now tell me this concept is really what Karl Rove wants to face. It isnt. He wants to bury us and our awakening of the sleeping majority before it really catches on.

Because the day Howard Dean gets the nomination, their way of doing business is over. They can not compete, nor could they ever, with the masses of Americans if they stay awake. How foolish it was , in their arrogance , to finally awaken the smoldering outrage of the american people. I hope to see many of them in orange jumpsuits some day.

Join us. This Weds. 7 pm at a location near you.

http://www.meetup.com

[artr2]

30. Right FUCKING on

This is the real deal. This is what gets me excited about People Powered Howard. Ordinary working folks (like me) can take on the moneyed interests and win. The repukkks and the corporate democrats are really getting their panties in a bunch, my friends. They see the end of their gravy train and they don't like it one bit. This is why Clark was tossed to the wolves. This is the DLC & corporate democrats candidate. Don't be fooled, this is the ONLY reason Clark is running.

[arwalden]

35. Thanks For The Reply And The Hopeful and Positive Outlook...

... I needed that.

-- Allen

[Justice]

24. The Internet Changes the Equation

I don't know how far along this idea is, but Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) said a a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting that if each person on Dean, Clark and Kerry email lists contributed $200 - the dems would have $200 million dollars.

His point was the Internet allows the Dems to efficiently collect lots of small checks. I don't know if Dean et al will share their lists with the party - but this seems to be where the Dems are looking.

[Yupster]

29. Correct Justice

With the new $ 2,000 limit, there's no reason Democrats should be overwhelmed by Republican money. The problem is that in the past Republican voters donate a lot more often than Democratic ones do. I saw something linked on DU which showed how many individuals donated to Bush and Gore last election. It was embarrassing. Bush had more than twice as many donors as Gore in Tennessee. It was the same everywhere.

Gore got about 50 million (?) votes last time? Why does $ 200 million seem out of reach? That's $ 4 per supporter.

I believe if Dean is the nominee, he will compete with Bush just fine, and it may change the Democratic Party.

Fot the last 4-5 elections, there are always many more people giving to Republican presidential candidates than Democratic and the average donation is always much larger given to a Democratic candidate than a Republican. There's no reason this should continue if Democratic candidates will get out there and expect their supporters to contribute, they will.

I believe Dean will do that.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. by going OFFSHORES!...that's where they get their money

[Resistance Is Futile]

27. Out of curiosity

Has any party ever come from behind in the funding race to win an electionÉ

[SaintLouisBlues]

34. Yes, l ast Selection

The Chimposter outspent Gore by quite a bit in 2000, but lost by 500,000 votes.

Hopefully Chimp will continue to tank and it'll happen again.

[Resistance Is Futile]

36. Which only proves the point

2000 just proved the point that money is not only more important than pre-election public opinion but also more important than votes.

[LoZoccolo]

28. If 5 million of us...

...gave $50, we'd have Bush's projected $250,000,000 matched.

[MadHound]

32. You wish to hear something that will really scare you?

The same people/corporations who are ponying up the big bucks for the 'Pugs are also doing the same for the Dems! That way they can pull the strings of this so called democracy no matter who wins. It is called hedging your bets. Booga Booga!!

Folks, the only way out of this corporate controlled quagmire we're in is to have across the country public campaign financing. Twenty eight states have the ability to have ballot initiatives. The rest have to work through their statehouse. If we all work this issue through our respective state processes and make it into law then we can start to break free of these corporate clutches that we're in.

This is not something that will happen overnight. The last time that we had this kind of corporate influence in our government, the Gilded Age, it took the work of two of our greatest presidents, Roosevelt and Roosevelt, along with a Depression and forty years of struggle to finally break free of big business' grip. It could take an equally ardorous struggle today, but we have to start somewhere, and the time is now. Otherwise we will be condemned to corporate serfdom no matter which party is in power for decades on end. Do you wish to condemn future generations to the tender mercies of corporate control? Do you wish to condemn future generations to the horrors of corporate robber barons and new age sweatshops? The time to act is now, to put the outmoded dichotomy of Dem and 'Pug behind us and realize that they all are corrupted, they all have that invisible string that leads back to their corporate master. We must work and strive for public campaign financing so that the people we elect are only beholden to we the people.