The ‘Sheldon Primary’ is one reason Americans distrust the political system

[jakeXT]

Several prospective Republican presidential candidates have gathered in Las Vegas for the opening round of what has been dubbed “the Sheldon Primary,” an event emblematic of how warped the system for financing presidential elections has become.

The Sheldon Primary is named for Sheldon Adelson, the wealthy casino owner who, with his wife, poured more than $92 million into the 2012 elections. Despite all that money, Adelson made some bad bets in the last election, first on former House speaker Newt Gingrich to win the Republican nomination and then on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama in the general election.

He is now looking toward 2016 with a fresh eye, determined, according to The Post’s Matea Gold and Philip Rucker, to find a non-extremist candidate who can actually win the presidency. Those who are looking at running would be happy to have that kind of financial support. Some of them have come to Las Vegas on Friday for a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, but also to meet privately with Adelson.

Adelson has become a symbol of the new system of financing presidential elections. He and others play under legal rules. But this new financing structure has had a corrosive effect on public confidence in government and politicians. It is why so many Americans feel shut out of the process.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-sheldon-primary-is-one-reason-why-americans-distrust-the-political-system/2014/03/28/765fbfdc-b67e-11e3-a7c6-70cf2db17781_story.html

[Bluenorthwest]

1. We should make sure Adleson is the poster child for the GOP

He is a vile person and he is about as charismatic as herpes simplex. He personifies everything that is wrong with our country and with our political process. Look at the 'social conservatives' line up to genuflect before Casino Christ.

[Jefferson23]

2. Chris Chrsitie is there in Vegas this weekend, courting Adelson. Koch brother will have their

man too. If they should join forces, then what?

How much more obscene does this have to get until we demand that it end?

[SunSeeker]

3. Yes, and the reason the GOP is so interested in banning online gambling.

Can't have anything interfereing with Sheldon's bottom line!

When in Vegas, stay out of Sheldon's Venetian hotel. Not only is it a huge, lame ripoff, but Americans should not be giving Sheldon a penny of their money.

[jberryhill]

6. But, have you seen the rooms?

[Redfairen]

10. It's also a sin, ya know.

We need laws to save sinners from themselves. Preacher told me so.

[SunSeeker]

11. Who's gonna save us from the preachers? nt

[wandy]

4. We can at least be glad that Adelson will not have the only vote in the primary..........

Charles and David Koch will demand their representation as well as Pat Robertson and the mega churches.
No doubt the M.I.C will send a contingent to insure they have equal protection.

I wonder if we will find out who was 'elected' before next October.

[jberryhill]

5. NASCAR is as popular as NFL football

That may or may not be true, depending on your definition of "popular", but there is no question that Americans love NASCAR and the NFL.

Now, whether you have a racing crew or a football team, you aren't going to get anywhere without a sponsorship. I mean, heck, people love the sponsors just as much as they love their favorite NASCAR driver or NFL team. The commercials during the Super Bowl are watched as eagerly as the game.

It's the American way. You want to win? Get a good sponsor.

[jakeXT]

7. For some, using tax payer money gets problematic

For years, America’s armed forces counted on that combination to boost recruitment, spending tens of millions of dollars to sponsor NASCAR teams and defending it as an unparalleled way to get its brand name in front of the kinds of young men who provide the backbone of the country’s fighting forces.

But with trillion-dollar deficits and defense cuts looming, NASCAR and other sports leagues are feverishly fighting this week to try to defend that spending in the face of a conservative-liberal coalition that says it’s time for the government to stop pumping taxpayers’ money into private sports teams — at least without more evidence that it pays off.

A vote in the House this week will go a long way toward deciding the fate of the funding, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars a year.

“We’re just trying to say, ‘Look, if you put your name on somebody’s car, show me the numbers,’” said Rep. Jack Kingston, Georgia Republican, whose support this year helped breathe life into the defunding effort. “I think as a conservative, we’ve got to measure our friends in the military with the same yardstick we measure a social program.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/17/nascar-drivers-racing-to-save-military-sponsors/

[jberryhill]

8. Sports should be privately funded, like politics is

[pscot]

9. Maynbe Scalito can explain why it's OK

for that tax dodging son-of-a-bitch to pick the next President.