So I found some really disturbing numbers on ‘USA Today’ last week. It had to do with campaign fundraising. Now please don’t think I’m naive and don’t understand that it does take money to run for politics—and lots of it. But in the wake of our budget deficit and struggling economy, it’s hard to not point out the absurdity of campaign costs.
Here’s a screenshot of the numbers:
Please tell me you had a similar reaction—again, not pretending this isn’t the way the system works, but when you put it in context, gosh that’s a lot of money all going toward the simple circus of elections. And just think, that’s only 12 states…there’s still 38 more.
Any way, that was just a side note. I won’t go into a philosophical lamentation that this is the infrastructure of our political process. However, I will point out the interesting notion that Romney and Obama have split what ‘USA Today’ calls, the critical states six and six.
Romney raised the most funds of anyone in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia. While Obama raised the most in Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The reason these states are so key is because they are typically swing states that can go red or blue in the election. Romney’s fundraising success in half these states may indicate that not only will Romney win the Republican nomination, but he may also be a viable threat to Obama, perhaps more so than I would have thought.
It will be an interesting trail the rest of the way, that’s for sure. The GOP continues to duke it out for the nod, and our good buddy Donald Trump is once again involved. Seriously? I know, absurd.
Trump is in line to host the next GOP debate, a move Ron Paul challenged as an element likely to make the debate a circus. My initial response, aside from the obvious ‘it isn’t already?’, is ‘touche Ron, touche’.
Why in the world do we need Donald Trump hosting the debate? He’s already made a decent mockery of our political system earlier in the campaign and Newt Gingrich’s comparison to Reagan’s rise to political power does not give Trump any more credit.
Why don’t we have journalists hosting these debates? Why aren’t they there asking the tough questions to give the American people the best information possible to vote with? That’s what these debates are supposed to be and if we remove the journalist from that process that helped found our country then our political system truly is a circus.
I also have to say I really do admire the emailed response Ron Paul’s people sent out after Gingrich stood behind Trump as a host. It sharply and subtly criticizes Gingrich for all the reasons he supports Trump as a host. Check it out and see what you think:
UPDATE: A senior Paul campaign source emails to push back, and hard: "We agree, of course, with former Speaker Gingrich — this is a country of people of enormous talent. Those who deliver thousands of babies like Dr. Paul and those who spend their time focusing on promoting themselves for profit. We even have those who lobby, but don't call it such because, as they say, they can make $60,000 per speech. While those of us in the Paul camp might disagree with Newt Gingrich about whether Donald Trump is the right man to host a serious political debate, we do agree New York is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. We are sure two average Americans like Speaker Gingrich and Donald Trump will have a wonderful time picking out gifts for their wives. We suggest a place called Tiffany's, we her it is quite nice this time of year and given their celebrity status they can probably get special deals and $500,000 lines of credit." (courtesy politico.com)
If you want to read more of what Gingrich said in favor of Trump check out this link: http://tinyurl.com/7x3o4mk
Thoughts on Donald Trump as a host?
Like you said, the GOP debate is already such a circus it's hard to think that adding Trump back into the fold could really make it too much worse. I think it will at least make for some entertaining television, and it could even bring about some ridiculous statements that start to separate some of the candidates from one another.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Parrot GDuty. Adding Trump can't hurt the circus acts.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of me deeply laments the dirty of brilliant politicians on the GOP side. To say this is the a mediocre array of candidates is an understatement. I read some of the Federalist Papers a few months back and quite frankly, these men are comical in an intellectual comparison to the founding thinkers of our country.
It is enjoyable to watch though. Sad. Good post.