This is just plain interesting:
Financial activity of 2008 presidential candidates and national party convention committees increased 80% in receipts over the 2004 presidential election, totaling more than $1.8 billion.The Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (AZ), received $84.1 million in public funds to conduct his general election campaign and raised an additional $46.4 million for legal and accounting expenses.The Democratic presidential nominee, then-Sen. Barack Obama (IL), raised a total of $745.7 million in private funds for his primary nomination and general election campaign. It was the first time in the history of presidential public financing that a major party nominee declined to accept public funds for the general election.
Our glorious President raised (and probably spent) over five times as much money as his competitor, but he only won the election 52.9% to 45.7% (or 365 votes to 173, depending on which yardstick you use).
I have little to no doubt that our most-recent election was bought, in just about every definition of the word, but it is interesting to me just how much money it took. No more do we have common men rising up from the masses to lead us – they simply cannot afford it any more. And we, as a country, are the lesser for it.
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