With so many Republicans jumping into the race....

[RR2]

Last edited Wed Jun 3, 2015, 12:40 PM - Edit history (1)

There must be great personal financial gains to be made. Lets face it, the true motivator for republicans can always be stripped down to pure personal greed.

Most of them know they do not stand a chance in hell to even become the final GOP candidate. So can some one explain to me how they are making mega bucks off this.

Do they get to keep their war chest? Does this chest allow them to have bribe money for future personal endeavors? This is a serious question, I am not being facetious. Can some of the more informed people here at DU help me out?

Thanks RR2

[bravenak]

1. Book sales. Lobbying jobs. Paid Speeches. Gigs with 'Think Tanks'. 'Fox News' jobs. All that.

I thought Herman Cain was doing it for money. No way was he really running for President.

[RR2]

10. Ahh yes, those are very good points!

[Cosmocat]

11. Its a pretty good gig

And, the right "base" is looney enough to toss enough money in each of a couple dozen crackpots campaign so they can live it up and travel on campaign funds for a year, while getting back slapped and getting the profile built up to turn a few bucks on books and other media avenues and speaking gigs.

[Lisa D]

2. I had the same thought.

Maybe they're all vying for a Fox News gig.

[arcane1]

3. As I understand it, that Super-PAC cash can get spent on pretty much anything

Especially once they are no longer running for office. Raise the money, then stop running, then you can "coordicate" with the PAC again. Ca-ching!

Stewart and Colbert should've one a Pulitzer for their reporting on Super-PACs.

[RR2]

8. Yes,thats it, I knew there had to be a place to hide their stash!

[DesMoinesDem]

4. They saw how much money Hillary made and wanted in on the action.

[RR2]

9. Thanks, not what I was looking for.

[lamp_shade]

5. I have the same questions. I'm bookmarking this to see responses.

So thanks for posting.

[NV Whino]

6. Very likely the VP candidate will come from the pack as well.

[FBaggins]

13. As well as future presidential candidates

The Republicans have a history of nominating people who were also-rans in prior cycles.

[NV Whino]

14. Exactly

Most of these guys are running for the future.

[gordianot]

7. This is what happens when dogs run in packs without a leader a massive dog fight.

I lived in a town as a child that had no animal control they ran in packs. Every so often men in the town got together and killed the more threatening animals. After being culled for a time the packs go away. Hopefully this time Republican animals will figuratively kill each other off and after another Presidential election Republican dogs will have to form a new leaderless pack.

[sofa king]

12. For most, it's career positioning.

A marginally successful run in an open Presidential election such as this coming one can reward the candidate in a number of ways as mentioned above.

But probably the most important way is that many of these candidates will be later bought off with career-enhancing cabinet positions, ambassadorships, and other favors doled out by the eventual winner, provided their side wins.

Hillary Clinton is actually a rather fine example of this herself. President Obama rewarded her eventual support with the Secretary of State position, which in turn has strongly bolstered her own Presidential resume and makes her the front-runner among all candidates on either side today. She came out of it more powerful and better positioned to reach her eventual goal, while President Obama didn't have to worry about her challenging his re-election in 2012.

Similarly and related to this is the often-used ploy of the nomination-winner picking up the second-place also-ran as a Vice Presidential running mate. Mrs Clinton seems not to have been interested in that herself, but Bush the Marginally Smarter took the offer from Reagan and leveraged it into his own win. John Edwards may have benefited from the same maneuver had Kerry won in '04, had he been able to conceal his sociopathy for long enough. "Running for VP" is a turn of phrase we'll see kicked about here, soon enough, as the primary race begins to congeal around Clinton and Bush, again.

No President wants to be contested in the primary race four years later, so they have a powerful incentive to reward their potential challengers with high-profile positions. Many of us still recall Ted Kennedy's disastrous run in 1980, which did nothing for him or Jimmy Carter but which brought us the October Surprise, crack cocaine, modern gerrymandering and the rise of the Bush crime organization. (It's true that Kennedy did not run in 1976 but he loomed as a huge but silent political force that year, in much the same way that Jeb Bush did in the last election.)

Among the current crop of Republican candidates, too numerous even to laugh at right now, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, and Dale Christensen appear to be particularly weak candidates who are running in hopes of eventual favor and public exposure. None of them fit the profile of white male asshole career politicians, which Republican voters prefer.

Surely they all wish to change that paradigm, but we know they won't.