Mr. Obama outspent Mr. McCain by the biggest margin in history, perhaps a quarter of a billion dollars....He buried Mr. McCain on TV.A state-by-state analysis confirms the Obama advantage. Mr. Obama outspent Mr. McCain in Indiana nearly 7 to 1, in Virginia by more than 4 to 1, in Ohio by almost 2 to 1 and in North Carolina by nearly 3 to 2. Mr. Obama carried all four states. Mr. Obama also used his money to outmuscle Mr. McCain on the ground, with more staff, headquarters, mail and a larger get-out-the-vote effort. No presidential candidate will ever take public financing in the general election again and risk being outspent as badly as Mr. McCain was this year. And even liberals, who have long denied that money is political speech that should be protected by First Amendment, may now be forced to admit that their donations to Mr. Obama were a form of political expression.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
UPDATE: The future of campaign finance
Last month the Review tackled the issue of America's failed campaign finance laws. In today's Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove has written an op-ed piece confirming many of our assertions. He argues that money is THE most important resource in waging a successful state-by-state electoral victory:
Love or hate him, Karl Rove has proved himself an extremely astute observer and practitioner of American politics. He steered Bush away from federal funding in both campaigns. David Axelrod took a page from his book and followed suit. Congress should take note.
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I think what you're seeing is the effect of social networks and internet marketing. It can effectively organize small, individual donors and mutes the advantage of larger, more aggregated pools of money that "influential" folks control. I wonder whether or not the spirit of campaign finance has been satisfied with this evolution? If this is so, the marketplace once again solved what lawmakers tried to do through legislation.
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