IT’S ALL ABOUT MONEY

All elections are about money I guess, but this 2008 election seems particularly so. It doesn’t seem to matter how the candidate stands on any issue as much as how much money is in their war chest.

Hillary has this much money and Obama has this much and Edwards is in third place so it looks like Hillary will be the nominee for the Democrats.

The 2008 candidates have already collected over $277 million. They collected more in the first six months of this year than candidates in the last presidential election gathered during all of 2003.

To increase their lead, the candidates are now searching for new sources of money. The White House hopefuls have shifted their attention from the merely wealthy to the well-connected. They shower attention on those who have networking skills to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in increments of $2,300, the legal limit.

They are also pitching more to the average working-man. Fund-raising events are now catering to people with $15 to $50 to donate.

I know the candidates can and will tell you anything you want to hear just to get your donation, but I really miss the old days when you thought the election was about issues and the candidates were not afraid to tell you how they felt about each one of them.

Maybe that’s one reason they are called “The Good Old Days”.

The California Curmudgeon