The Republicans have big problems.
Romney, a multimillionaire, has now lent his campaign a total of about $9 million. Without the loans from his personal fortune, Romney would have only about $3 million in the bank to spend this year.
John McCain just fired 50 staffers and has just $2 million on hand.
Guiliani raised $15 million this quarter and has $15 million on hand.
By contrast:
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s 258,000 contributors since January exceed the combined number of donors of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), according to estimates provided by the campaigns…
…During the quarter, Obama (Ill.) raised $32.5 million, $31 million of which can be used in the primaries. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) raised $21 million for the primaries and a total of about $27 million in the same period.
The Republicans can’t compete. They can’t even finance their campaigns. The party of Wall Street and the defense contractor industry can’t even keep their lights on during a time of strong markets and unending war. What’s going on?
To be honest, I’m not sure what’s going on. George W. Bush had little difficulty raising buckets of cash in 2000. Something in their party mechanism has simply broken. Maybe the problem is that the administration has no heir apparent. It’s obvious that the Republicans are the underdogs in the ’08 election, and that’s not helpful. But this disparity is startling.
Early days. The big money doesn’t much care who the GOP nominee is — any of them will do what they’re ordered to do. So will the Dems, of course, but not without excessive and irritating noise levels.
As the lab rat with the wires in its speech centers said, Happy Independence Day.
I tend to agree. The defense contractor/wall street money will come when the nominee is sorted out. Until then, no reason to back a candidate. And none of the Republican big 3 is likely to appeal to social conservatives.
I wouldn’t count the Reps. out this cycle. They’re unlikely to win a head-to-head race, but they could easily win a plurality if Bloomberg gets in. Imagine a Clinton-Bloomberg-Brownback race. Now imagine a Brownback presidency.
After becoming ill at the headline that Guiliani is top dog in fund raising, this makes it better. Top dog among dead dogs.
Perhaps the GOP has decided to concede early. They’ve already accepted popular opinion; the MSM hasn’t but they’re being pragmatic. They know a Dem will be left holding a flaming bag no credible Republican will touch. They’ll have time to regroup, and they’ve alrady done enough to keep their patrons happy for awhile. They’re ready to kick back and draw some interest. Why else is Romney “My dog likes fresh air” even tolerated in polite company. He’s already a loser, and he’s doing it on his own dime.
Guiliani will run a fine race and follow the script Dick writes for him. Don’t see any wild cards there. Brownback isn’t trying that hard, but if this drought keeps up, who knows. He might start preaching in tents and set himself on fire.
Not to be quirky, but perhaps the sheer outlay of legal defense fund begging has given the candidates’ campaign chests a bit of a squeeze. Hard to beg for defense funds at every turn whilst promoting more of the same-or just handing out more empty promises.
You HAVE to be kidding.
What’s “going on” is that the Big Fix mechanism has shifted to the other side.
Now CheneyBush is bad for business. As is the party that they helped to decimate.
NOW Big Brother and the Holding Corporation is looking for the most likely Dem to elect.
Most likely to simultaneously succeed and to play the game their way while doing it.
Bet on it.
Obama leads early in the race because the fix has not yet been thoroughly inserted. He blew it with B.B.& the H.C. in Detroit a month or more ago when he took a bunch of automobile industry bigwigs to task for not building better cars.
In PUBLIC!!!
Unless there is a literal tidal wave of small donations, he will eventually lose to the open coffers of said National Holding Company.
Why?
How?
BECAUSE THEY PRINT THE GODDAMNED MONEY is why.
Watch.
It’s Hillary, folks.
Hillary all the way.
She has made her promises to the right people…ALL of the right people…and she has not backtracked on them. Not in public, anyway.
Watch.
If she claims that she can control Obama, she may be allowed use him as a vote bait VP.
IF the election is in any question whatsoever by the time the Dem convention steams into whatever lucky city will host it next year.
And…a BIG “and”…if there is no major societal breakdown in the interim.
The only potential major candidate that the Boys In Grey might trust?
Bloomberg.
And I doubt that. The trust part. After all…He IS Jewish.
And they are not.
Bet on THAT as well.
So it goes here in the United States of Omertica.
The truth lies.
Even the truth lies.
Later…
AG
Well AG…
let’s look at this a little more conventionally, shall we?
There are laws about donating to presidential candidates. You can give a certain amount in the primary and then you can give that amount again if the candidate wins the nomination. And that’s it. Everything else has to be funneled through the DNC or RNSC or whatever.
So, what does it mean that Hillary raised ‘$21 million for the primaries and a total of about $27 million’ and Obama raised ‘$32.5 million, $31 million of which can be used in the primaries’?
It means that Hillary is already tapping out her big donors. They’ve maxed out what they are allowed to give. Obama? Not so much. His donors can keep giving and giving, and he has over a quarter million of them.
In other words? Obama has a bigger advantage that it appears.
As for the Wall Street types, they really don’t have that much to complain about. A kinder, gentler Bushism would seem to be in their interests. Are they waiting for Fred Thompson to hop in with both feet? Perhaps.
But they know Rudy pretty well, and they aren’t biting. I don’t think they are king or queen making so much as they are reading the tea leaves.
They’re betting there is nothing they can do to prevent a Dem presidency and they want Charlie Rangel (Ways and Means) and Barney Frank (Financial Services) to forget all that stuff they said about blacks and gays.
As Rangel said back in January, ‘I can’t believe how many new friends I have.’
Hillary was on the cover of Fortune magazine with the title that says ‘big business loves her..who knew’…that says it all. And for me not in a good way.
If there was a ceiling on mainstream hype, this would be true.
Let’s look at all this a little LESS cvonventionally, OK?
Beware the orthodoxy and all that. (Unless of course it has ALL the money.)
You know the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”?
Well…a soundbite, a subliminal shove in a plus or minus direction (depending on who is doing the shoving, in what direction, and to whom), coverage or the lack thereof…they are all worth THOUSANDS of dollars.
Millions.
How did Dean lose?
Dean, who was in much the same position 4 years ago as Obama is today.
How soon we forget.
He was “ARRRGHED” to death by the corporate-owned media
How did they do it?
By the death of a thousand images.
See this picture?
KerryHawk about to eat DeanMouse.
A thousand thousand times.
Over and over and over again.
Dean’s weak.
He’s a flake.
Kerry’s strong.
Hes a WAR HERO!!!.
And then the coup de grace.
AAAAARGH!!!!
No more Dean.
Then…the Kerryboating.
Kerry and Edwards as gay lovers.
Batman and his ward, Robin.
Kerry as coward. NOT war hero.
And ol’ Small K got…confused.
Followed by a little creative vote scamming, and
FOUR MORE YEARS!!!
YAAAAY!!!!
YAAAAY!!!!
FOUR MORE YEARS!!!
To cement the hype.
And to make FOUR MORE YEARS!!! worth of blood money.
Watch.
They’ll get Obama, too.
Unless of course he learns how to shuffle and jive.
Even better than he does already.
Watch.
Late July/early August.
In the NY Times Sunday section.
Watch.
They’ll get ‘im.
And he will sink ever so slooowly into the sunset.
It took Dean MONTHS to sink
But but bottom out he did.
Of a thousand little below the waterline cuts.
Watch.
The NY Times.
All the news that’s fit to cut.
Watch.
AG
I agree that the big money won’t come out until they can get more bang for their bucks against the Democratic candidate, but some of the early money trouble could be caused by people like my daughter’s father-in-law who has been a staunch donating Republican for years. He’s slamming the phone down on Repug fund raising and deleting emails begging for money without opening them because he’s so disgusted with the current administration and how it’s being aided and abetted by the Repug members of CONgress.
The Republican’s Problem:
1)Iraq
2)Dick Cheney
3)V.P. Bush
4)U.S. Public Tired of Being Scared
5)Can’t catch OBL
6)Iraq
7)Gas is $3.00 per gallon
8)Stagflation is on the way, if not already here.
9)The Internet..small donors can give money to Democrats waves of money…Hillary, Obama, Edwards = 60 million no
10) Iraq.
Supply and demand, and it looks like the supply chain is narrowing. So there’s no point to donating at this point.
My guess is that a lot of the big money donors are exhibiting a wait and see policy; somewhere down the road, they may turn to Senator Clinton as the “lesser evil” in commerce.
Don’t look at Romney’s cash, look at his numbers. Lots of his donors are tapped out Mormons, who’ve already sent their $4600 check.
The Dem candidate (probably Hillary) will win by a landslide. This person will inherit a collossal mess, that will take one or more generations to fix, if it can be fixed at all. The Rs are doing their damnednest to make their changes permanent, that they can never be undone.
And so the Republican brand goes fallow for a season, while the Democratic ’08 winner gets blamed for everything W did. And then the Rs come back stronger and more fascist than ever.
2008 reminds me of 1996, when you just knew Bob Dole was never going to beat Bill Clinton.
alyosha:
I thought I was the only one who saw this possibility!
Hope we’re wrong.
And, even if we’re right, there’s still the possibility that it could backfire and leave them substantially weakened and in the dog’s house for decades.
But I ain’t holdin’ my breath.