Question about Political Spending

[Miniv]

Do you think all the money spent on political advertising by the two presidential candidates is excessive?

I don't know how much McCain has or is spending........(Someone can post this if they know.)

It was just reported that Obama has spent approximately 90 Million and plans on purchasing 30 minutes of primetime on CBS.......and is negotiating with the other networks.........I don't know how much that will cost.

Is this an indication of spending by the candidate if or when he is elected????

This was just something that crossed my mind because of all of our concerns with the economic bail out.

 

[garyo]

I think the amount of money spent by each candidate is obscene.

It especially upsets me that so many of the adds are attack ads. I wish both candidates would simply state their plans and ideas and not slam the opposition.

I believe most Americans are capable of at least having a basic understanding of the issues and problems we face and do not need either party using scare tactics.

Sorry for straying off topic.

gary

 

[AppyLover2]

I think that since the primary was earlier this year the spending is higher than normal.....but it would be obscene even if it had been going on for years.

 

[Bassett]

From what I've read McCain is limited to 84 M because it is public funding. Obama said he would use public funding also but then changed his mind and is raising his own funds so he had more to spend. The last I read he had raised something like 434 million. But he will not reveal where his sources came from and there is a strong suspicion that at least 3.3 million came from overseas, which is under investigation. This not meant to be a slam, it is just what has been reported.

 

[littlesteppers]

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php

 

[Bassett]

I should have also stated that the public funding is only for the presidential election. The primary was different money. There they can raise whatever.

 

[littlesteppers]

I should have also stated that the public funding is only for the presidential election. The primary was different money. There they can raise whatever.

Here are all the other candidates that was in the race

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/alsorans.php

 

[Miniv]

That link is very interesting, Littlesteppers..........

So McCain raised 230 million.........has 36 million remaining, as of the last accounting.

Obama raised 454 million.......has 77 million left as of last accounting.

Where did Obama raise so much??? (I thought the Republicans were the rich high-rollers?) And how is Obama going to afford buying all the prime time on the networks???

All of this $$$ makes me very nervous........ Hey, if these folks cared about about this country, all those millions would be better spent helping the deficit!!! (Scratch that.....It would probably get into the wrong hands and another group of CEO's would be off spending it at a resort somewhere......)

I'm just so sick and disgusted with the waste and spending on stupid things.

 

[LowriseMinis]

The vast vast VAST majority of Obama's money came from individual contributions-Americans who support Obama and his ideals and chose to gave a little to his campaign. I'm sure there are plenty of big-names in there who have made significant contributions, but I'm also going to venture a guess that there are a lot of middle to lower class donors throwing $5 or $10 or $20 into the hat when they can, because they want to. I don't have a ton to spare but I donated what I could in cash and I'm making up the rest in time now.

Opensecrets rates Obama very high for the amount of disclosure about his funding, somewhere in the low 90 percents, higher than McCain's.

I'm not a huge fan of all the money spend campaigning, especially when it boils down to negative ads and lies and 'he said' and so on. Tell us the facts and get on with it! But it's the nature of the political machine, and it's going to be painfully difficult to change.

However, it looks like most of both Obama's and McCain's money came from individual contributions, people who said "Here, you take this". That makes the amount of spending a little more acceptable in my mind because it's money their supporters want to see them use.

 

[OhHorsePee]

Huh! There are several that Obama has not released the sources of his contributors. But, of course, that too will be ok.

OVER SEAS MONEY

 

[Bassett]

Thanks Fran, that is the article I read where it is reported that some of Obamas money may have come from overseas. Also he says over half of his money came from small donations from 1-25 $. I for one do not believe this. So why won't he let it be know where the other half came from? My guess is that he is scared too. He thinks it's nobodies business but his. But he is wrong. It is EVERYBODIES business. He gets donations over the limit so refunds some, the people send it back, he refunds. It has to be so mixed up that they can't keep track of it. I know someone won't believe this but I know what I saw. I'm not blind and haven't buried my head in the sand.

 

[LowriseMinis]

I'm sorry it's so hard for some people to believe that the grassroots effort is alive and well, and that a lot of people making small donations can make an impact.

However, I'm pretty sure when you click on the for, to donate it doesn't say "Thank you for your contribution. We will contact you in 4-6 weeks after your background check has cleared." The form just accepts money in an automated process.

At the bottom of the article it does say "The Obama campaign has begun to request passport numbers from donors to verify their citizenship." which is good, and will hopefully make it easier to filter out unqualified donations. I'm not convinced there is any wrongdoing on the part of the campaign, and I know that they'll be cooperative with authorities and return any foreign money they aren't allowed to have.

I mean, $3.3 million? That's just a drop in the bucket when you look at how much people have raised for the campaign.

 

[Bassett]

I'm not convinced there is any wrongdoing on the part of the campaign,

I think I'm convinced there is.

 

[LowriseMinis]

I almost hate to ask, but do you have anything to back that claim up?

 

[Bassett]

Do you?

 

[LowriseMinis]

I've flipped through a few articles and what I've seen so far is that the campaign is not refusing to cooperate with anyone, and that they are now taking steps to verify donors from overseas.

 

[AppyLover2]

It's the "they are now taking steps" that's a big part of the problem for me. They're taking steps now that there's an investigation into it. Reminds me of how he took steps to disassociate himself with some people after it appeared that those associations might endanger his election. For some of us it's too little too late. WAY too late.

 

[BlueMoonEmbroidery]

How complete are this candidate's campaign finance reports?

Obama -

Full Disclosure $241,496,372 (92.4%)

Incomplete $5,645,434 (2.2%)

No Disclosure $14,294,243 (5.5%)

McCain -

Full Disclosure $149,978,607 (86.8%)

Incomplete $5,347,819 (3.1%)

No Disclosure $17,504,399 (10.1%)

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php

Bolds are mine.