Presidential Money Race

[jim schmidt]

So we're to believe that McCain's not in "full raising mode?"

[clockworkjon]

Easy there Jimbo. McCain already has his nomination. Its not a question of his promises and ideas being better than the other republican candidates' because they're all out. So whether they all like him or not, they know that's where money goes, he's their man. Now he can get to work on ironing out his entire platform specifics and rally his party for the general election.

The dems, however, are still scrounging for every dollar (or million dollars as it were) they can get. They can't afford to give every detail of their plans yet because A) they're still for sale, and who knows who wil pay the most for loyalty on a particular issue, and B) Every idea one candidate gives, the other can rip apart and slam, as we've seen for the past few months. The party is totally split down the middle and who ever eventually wins will have half the party hate them anyway!

So the general election will be a republican who, in the past, has made some un-republican decisions which pissed off his party; and a democrat with half his/her party pissed off and licking their wounds from the last few months of attacks. That doesn't inspire me to get out there and vote, and I don't think I'm alone. Can't wait to see what happens when they start discussing VPs!

I'm trully a non-partisan cynic. I don't like any of them, on either side of the fence. I'm just a pissed off American citizen.

[jim schmidt]

Wrong. It is not that important really. But the idea that McCain is not fundraising with the same fervor as the other two is pretty laughable. He's just not succeeding like the other two.

[clockworkjon]

(Sung to the tune of Crescent Fresh by Sifl and Olly, google it. For those of you not familiar, I've drawn you a picture. )

GOP guy, gets nom-i-nation
He, don't need to fight, for consideration, cuz
he's so crescent-fresh, super-cresc at best

Democrat girl and democrat guy
They have to fight lots, for their piece of pie, cuz
They're not crescent-fresh, their campaign's a mess

[SlowGoose]

Jesus, I think my IQ just dropped reading that post.

You are aware that there is still a general election to be contested, and that this election requires money, yes?

[jim schmidt]

Originally Posted by SlowGoose

Jesus, I think my IQ just dropped reading that post.

You are aware that there is still a general election to be contested, and that this election requires money, yes?

It probably dropped about five posts earlier when he claimed that McCain wasn't fund raising because he had the nomination. That was just the source document.

[flylooper]

Originally Posted by jim schmidt

It probably dropped about five posts earlier when he claimed that McCain wasn't fund raising because he had the nomination. That was just the source document.

The "non-partisan cynic" doesn't realize the level of disgust with the status quo.
As I said, his GOP slip shows.

Here's the problem with his little drawing:

Republicans $----------> McCain $


Democrats $$$$$------------> Obama $
Clinton $

And whomever emerges from the primaries as the nominee will be very, very savvy for the experience.

[HighsideSV]

Originally Posted by clockworkjon

(Sung to the tune of Crescent Fresh by Sifl and Olly, google it. For those of you not familiar, I've drawn you a picture. )

GOP guy, gets nom-i-nation
He, don't need to fight, for consideration, cuz
he's so crescent-fresh, super-cresc at best

Democrat girl and democrat guy
They have to fight lots, for their piece of pie, cuz
They're not crescent-fresh, their campaign's a mess

Kinda forgot that McCain is going to have to enter into a national election representing a party that just gave us the least popular president in American history, didn't you? That guy needs money more than anybody, and he ain't getting it.

As far as whining about the candidates spending goes, please think about it for a minute. They are SPENDING rich people's money and the government's money, and they are spending it HERE. I hope they spend more. All they are doing is redistributing money, probably from bad people to better people.

[SlowGoose]

Originally Posted by HighsideSV

As far as whining about the candidates spending goes, please think about it for a minute. They are SPENDING rich people's money and the government's money, and they are spending it HERE. I hope they spend more. All they are doing is redistributing money, probably from bad people to better people.

Fucking socialists........

[clockworkjon]

I know McCain needs money, I'm not a moron. I never implied that he didn't need or work for money. But its not like the republicans are still donating money to the Fred Thompson campaign, or the Mike Huckabee campaign, because they're done. There's nobody left to donate to but McCain. The Democrats still have two candidates to choose when they're writing their checks. That's why the last few months have been so vicious between them. I'm just an average joe making an observation on the staggering amount of money in play during this election, on both sides.

And if you've never seen Sifl and Olly, or didn't google it, then of course my previous post wouldn't be funny or make sense. For those in the know, it was worth a nostalgic chuckle.

[baldheadeddork]

On the high estimate, Obama spent $11 million on ads in Pennsylvania in six weeks. (That number is an estimate from the Clinton campaign, so take it with a grain of salt.)

To put that in perspective, Anheuser Busch spent that much on its first four ads aired during this year's Super Bowl...

Spending thirty million a month? Thirty mil is a decent, though not huge, budget for a two-week blockbuster movie promotion.

A presidential candidate spends $150 million to run for president? Shit, let's double it. Say Obama raises and spends $300 million over a year and a half. GM's ad spending alone in the same period will be something in the range of $2.25 billion. Proctor and Gamble will spend $4.5 billion in 18 months to get you buy their soap. $300 million on an 18 month campaign where you have to make a hundred million people (or so) become your consumers is the bargain of the century.

The cost of marketing a campaign has been out of whack compared to the cost of marketing anything else for a long, long time. It's been limited by the $2300 per cycle contribution limits and no way for campaigns to efficiently raise small donations. Campaigns and parties have created ways to get around the laws and spend more for decades. The donor limits for national committees is $80K per year and that money effectively does the same thing. Then came bundling where influential contributors sell access to them for donations to their candidate. In the last cycle we got the 527's, who have no donor limits.

Hillary is still raising most of her money the old fashioned way, and McCain isn't even trying to reach small donors. Obama is different. He carried forward what Dean created four years ago and raised over $150 million (so far) from 1.5 million different donors. That allows him to spend as much on his campaign as a second-rate burger chain will spend on marketing a new sandwich.

Try to not shit yourself.

[Trash]

Originally Posted by baldheadeddork

Try to not shit yourself.

[SlowGoose]

Snerk......

[clockworkjon]

Originally Posted by baldheadeddork

On the high estimate, Obama spent $11 million on ads in Pennsylvania in six weeks. (That number is an estimate from the Clinton campaign, so take it with a grain of salt.)

To put that in perspective, Anheuser Busch spent that much on its first four ads aired during this year's Super Bowl...

Spending thirty million a month? Thirty mil is a decent, though not huge, budget for a two-week blockbuster movie promotion.

A presidential candidate spends $150 million to run for president? Shit, let's double it. Say Obama raises and spends $300 million over a year and a half. GM's ad spending alone in the same period will be something in the range of $2.25 billion. Proctor and Gamble will spend $4.5 billion in 18 months to get you buy their soap. $300 million on an 18 month campaign where you have to make a hundred million people (or so) become your consumers is the bargain of the century.

The cost of marketing a campaign has been out of whack compared to the cost of marketing anything else for a long, long time. It's been limited by the $2300 per cycle contribution limits and no way for campaigns to efficiently raise small donations. Campaigns and parties have created ways to get around the laws and spend more for decades. The donor limits for national committees is $80K per year and that money effectively does the same thing. Then came bundling where influential contributors sell access to them for donations to their candidate. In the last cycle we got the 527's, who have no donor limits.

Hillary is still raising most of her money the old fashioned way, and McCain isn't even trying to reach small donors. Obama is different. He carried forward what Dean created four years ago and raised over $150 million (so far) from 1.5 million different donors. That allows him to spend as much on his campaign as a second-rate burger chain will spend on marketing a new sandwich.

Try to not shit yourself.

Thanks for your input, I hadn't thought about it from that angle!

[baldheadeddork]

Originally Posted by clockworkjon

Thanks for your input, I hadn't thought about it from that angle!

Glad I could help.

A little more about campaigns and money...

For fundraising purposes the presidential campaign is divided into the primary phase and the general election phase. It's a distinction no one has thought much about in the past, because as soon as a candidate wraps up the nomination he immediately starts raising money for the general election. This is what John McCain is doing this year.

But under FEC rules, the primary phase doesn't end until the candidate is officially awarded the nomination as his convention. You can raise general election money before the convention, but anything you spend over the summer has to come out of your primary budget. Some campaigns in the past have actually had