Americans Away From Home

How much have the candidates raised?  How much have they spent?  Take a look.  (NY Times graphic here).

People in other countries find this morbidly fascinating. 

I get asked a lot:  "Why do American elections cost so much?"  How do you explain the spiraling blackmail effect of crescendoing candidates' televison ads requiring competing ads by the others?  How to explain that apparently in the U.S., s(he) who spends more on ads has a better chance to win?  Money is survival, yet openly viewable, not necessarily so elsewhere in the world.

Could a poor woman/man get to be U.S. President?  Not really.  Could this happen in other countries?  Maybe in those countries where might makes Presidents. 

With the Internet changing everything, perhaps.  Imagine a candidate who didn't have millions, running for U.S. President.  Could happen in the future; for now, it would be tough.  What if Hillary didn't have that five million dollars she "lent" her own campaign?  How do candidates pay for all that travel, housing on the road, mortgages while they're absent from work, child care?  Michelle Obama has family to watch her children; what would parents without familial child-carers do?

It costs to run for public office in America.  What about campaign spending limits?  McCain has things to clear up first before learning what he can accept; Obama wrote a column on spending limits, please see Red Hot!

Carole