Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday had an interesting "big number" of the day. The number showed the ungodly cost of a presidential campaign these days. Matthews said the New York Times had figured up what it cost Hillary Clinton to get a delegate in the 2008 campaign. The figure was $109,823 per delegate, and that was for the losing campaign. Can you imagine what the number will be in four years? Maybe it's time for us to seriously consider public financing of national campaigns.
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Al Franken is now officially the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota. He received over 60% of the first ballot votes at the Minnesota Democratic Convention. He told the convention, "I will not lose my spine." That's a promise I wish a few more Democrats would make.
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It looks like maybe Bob Barr will be siphoning off some Republican votes in the coming election. Former Texas congressman and future prison inmate, Tom DeLay, was asked if Barr would get a lot of Republican votes. He said yes. He went on to say his own wife had announced she would be voting for Barr, and he was still trying to talk her out of it. McCain still has a lot of convincing to do with his right-wing party's base.
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There are many who are clamoring for an Obama-Clinton ticket. President Jimmy Carter is not one of them. He told The Guardian newspaper in London that would be "the worst mistake that could be made". Carter said, "That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates" and the accumulated vulnerabilities would overshadow the campaign.
I've been a strong supporter of public financing, but after seeing what Obama has been able to do in raising money in small amounts from the grassroots, I'm starting to waver a bit. I woudn't mind seeing some model of campaign finance that incorporated public financing while also accomodating people-powered fundraising to some extent.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to know that he hasn't been bought and paid for by the corporations (like most candidates).
ReplyDelete"...He told the convention, "I will not lose my spine." That's a promise I wish a few more Democrats would make..."
ReplyDeleteI don't care if more Dems make that promise - I want more of them to *keep* it.
Amen to that!
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