Kerry and Edwards DWARFED by Bush in Campaign Funds

[kerryistheanswer]

We all need to stop complaining about either Kerry or Edwards ties to special interests. There don't come close to Bush and are far far far back in funds.

In an ideal world, financing would not matter but we're up against a beast and need to beat him. So we should stop beating up on each other with attacks on special interest ties. Kerry and Edwards have both run honest campaigns and will face a well-funded, aggressively vicious competitor in the general.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60693-2004Feb21.html

New campaign finance reports show that the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination were barely solvent at the end of January heading into a prospective $50 million-plus ad blitz by President Bush.

Bush ended January with $104.4 million in the bank, nearly 100 times as much as the net balances of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic front-runner, and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), Kerry's leading challenger for the nomination.

"We will never catch up," said Michael Meehan, Kerry's spokesman, noting that so far in February, Kerry had raised $5 million.

Bush is gearing up to weaken the Democratic nominee well before the general election campaign starts, using a tactic that proved highly effective for President Bill Clinton in 1996.

[Birthmark]

1. Who cares?

If we ran Satan as Democrat, and his platform had only two planks - the total destruction of humanity and good jobs - we'd STILL win.

[Taeger]

2. People power ...

Democratic campaigns should be powered by VOLUNTEERS not by paid operatives.

I see Bush's COMPLETE reliance on money as a weakness.

[FlashHarry]

3. Unfortunately, it's all about the TV buy.

Expect to see wall-to-wall television advertising from BushCo.

[janx]

4. Oh well. n/t

[Nicholas_J]

6. Also just read an Australain liberel paper

That insicates that though Bush has collected a lot more money, they are now very worried about Kerry, and are beginning to be concerned about Edwards, as he is closing closely on Bush in states in which Kerry is seen as defeating Bush, indicating that the support for a democratic candidate is starting to generalize against Republicans.

[Nicholas_J]

5. Actually as a group

The democrats have raised almost as much for nomination as Bush has for the general election, with no signs of that letting up. One of the critical reasons for front loading the primaries was to get a nominee earliy enough to start a single fund raising effort. By the time it is all over, for one reason or other, Democrats will raise as much as Bush has, only the longer the nomination process goes on, the more will be spent on the nomination process. Gore ran a successful campaign for the popular vote with half the money Bush had in 2000, and won the popular vote. The Bush people were simply more clever strategists regarding the electoral college, a fact not lost on the two current Democrat frontrunners. Kerry's campaign is far more strategically oriented, as he is doing better than Bush in the none states which are must wins to get the lions share of electoral votes. There are none states that have roughly half the needed electoral votes, California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan. Most in the industrialized Nothern tier of states. Most now moving into the Democratic camp, which is why Kerry's strategy of taking the North and considering ignoring the assumtion that you must win some states in the south to win the general elections is the best strategy. Right now polls show Kerry can beat Bush in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois. Close in Florida, with Florida beginning to lean Democratic again in polls against Bush. That leaves Bush with Texas and Ohio, which again, are in flux. Winning the majority of these electoral superstates, and your chances of winning the general election become greatly magnified.

At this point, all of the money that all of the candidates have received from lawyers and other groupings of people (Dean raised nearly a million from lawyers) becomes avaiable to the candidate for the general election, as these grouped do not tend to contribute to one candidate alone, but hedge their bets by contributing to all of the candidates.