Ron Paul raises 8 million. Perry raises 17 million. What a waste of money.

[tawadi]

We need real campaign reform and we need it now.

Really. By the time the GOP buys their next candidate, major corporations really will be too broke to hire again.

:grr:

[hobbit709]

1. Look at it this way-that's $25 mill not being spent on a viable candidate.

[CloakedClock]

2. Ron Paul's not a corporatist candidate

Sometimes-unrealistic? Yes. Sometimes batshit-insane libertarian? Yes. But he's no corporate shill or dupe, that's for sure.

[FarLeftFist]

4. I would think undoing corporate regulations is pretty much bending over for them.

[tawadi]

6. Ding, ding ding.

:thumbsup:

[guitar man]

7. My ass

He's just like every other supporter of "free market" economic violence against the working class, he'll bury his nose up the nearest corporate ass he can find if it helps him.

[CloakedClock]

13. No...

Paul wants to do away with corporate money in politics, end corporate welfare, and curtail the lobbying process. Ron Paul is an honest-but-batshit libertarian "free marketer." He is not a corporatist. There are plenty of reasons to vote against him, but the idea that he's a corporate puppet is not one of them. There's a reason that the conservative business/Wall Street establishment completely shuns him.

[guitar man]

14. He wants my family dead or made into slaves

...pressed into poverty so desperate we would do anything to make a dollar a day or less like they did during the depression.Anything but fair wages and living conditions that would "cost" his class one penny.

At the same time he wants the aristocrats in the corporate world to have no regulations, no rules and free reign to be a small but elite ruling class in the new 3rd world amerika

However you slice it, he's on their side, and that makes him my mortal enemy.

[IndyPragmatist]

21. Don't try and use facts, they are not wanted here!

Honestly, trying to claim Ron Paul is a corporate shill is about the dumbest thing I've heard someone say about him. But like I said in the subject line, some people don't care about facts, they have their opinions and the truth will do nothing to change that.

[tawadi]

22. It is a well known fact that Ron Paul wants to basically eliminate gov't regulations.

Fact. No personal opinion about it.

[IndyPragmatist]

23. Yet corporations still hate him...why is that?

You aren't a child, I am not going to spoon feed you information. It's pretty widely known how much the big corporate players dislike Paul. Maybe you haven't been paying attention for the last 50 years or so, but corporate influence has been controlling congress quite a bit. If you really don't think that corporations have been using regulation to keep small businesses down, well, then there is nothing that can be done to show you the truth.

Corporations have done a great job of making it seem like regulations always hurt them. Well, when you have the influence to write regulations that are easy for a large corporations to adhere to, but impossible for smaller businesses, you get more powerful corporations. It's the microsoft model. Use your size and resources to squash the competition and control the marketplace instead of letting consumers decide which product is best.

[FarLeftFist]

24. Corporations seem to dislike Obama as well, so do the bankers, obviously.

[FarLeftFist]

25. How is he NOT a shill? He's FOR big oil, FOR de-regulation, FOR private insurance, etc.

[HappyMe]

11. He's just as much a corporate ass kisser as

the next guy. He just hides it amidst all his insane blathering. Sneaky.

[valerief]

3. All goes to buy poll workers. nt

[AlinPA]

5. They will be getting billions. This is just a starter amount. After they pick their candidate they

will be flooded with tens of billions from corporations because of the Citizens United ruling.

[tawadi]

8. Who knows? Maybe this is the reason corporations have been hoarding trillions.

:shrug:

[HighContext]

9. 94% of elections go to the candidate that raises the most money.

94%!

But, is it a case of chicken before the egg?
Or, is it that our media is corrupt and many or unaware just how blindered they are?

[spin]

10. Obama plans to raise $1,000,000,000 for his campaign ...

One billion dollars is an obscene amount to waste on a political campaign.

Obama's reelection campaign could hit billion-dollar mark

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 12, 2010; 7:38 PM

Will President Obama be the first billion-dollar man?

He raised and spent $750 million in the 2008 campaign, and there is already speculation that the cash-collection operation for his 2012 reelection bid will crest the once-unimaginable sum of $1 billion raised. (That's a one and nine zeros. Nine!)

"It's not unrealistic at all, given the amount raised and spent in 2008 and the amount Republican interest groups and 527s will spend against him," said a former Obama administration official.

A look at the trend line of fundraising for presidential candidates over the past several elections suggests a doubling effect every four years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121203181.html

I agree that we need need real campaign reform and we need it now. It should apply to all candidates and all offices.

With our current system is it any wonder why we are a nation of the rich, by the rich and for the rich?

[tawadi]

12. I did not know this.

That's a despicable amount of money. Especially with the numbers of people losing their homes and jobs. :-(

[spin]

16. And be aware that Obama's Republican opponent will be trying to raise the same amount ...

How much of this money will be used for the endless non stop campaign commercials on TV. Those commercials are one reason I hate the election campaign season.

It also leads to questions about how much the really big donors get in return for their money. Perhaps that is why Wall Street and the Big Banks got the bail outs that would have done far more good on Main Street.

[tawadi]

20. Of course it lead to the bailouts. I have no doubt.

When a politician's pockets are lined, the reciprocity becomes the problem.

[frazzled]

15. Fools and their money are soon parted

If people want to throw away their money on these candidates, so be it.

If it were up to me, all campaigns would be publicly funded, with tight spending caps. The main opponents to this come from the radio, television, and print media (and add to that, Internet--attention bloggers who are part of this, including DU). Revenues from political advertising are HUGE. And advertising is where most of this money goes.

[spin]

17. I totally agree ...

I could enjoy the programs I watch on TV during the campaign season much more if they didn't contain endless campaign advertisements.

Publicly funded campaigns is in my opinion a great idea.

[BobbyBoring]

18. A huge waste

Especially considering that most of it goes to the corporate media. It's like revolving money. It's said that 5.5 BILLION will be raised for the 2012 elections.

[northoftheborder]

19. A waste of money is right.

Think about how many people and programs could be helped with that money. Also makes me sick to hear about the millions spent on "sky boxes" at sports stadiums, etc..