Insane Political Fundraising

I heard a news report today that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the former First Lady of Slick Willie is averaging approximately six million dollars per quarter in political fund raising. At that rate they estimate she'll have 48 million dollars in her coffers by the time of the New York Senate elections coming up. They also estimate that she will spend approximately eighteen million dollars on her campaign for reelection to her seat in the Senate. Now the Reporter made the comment that that would leave her thirty million dollars should she decide to run for President in 2008. Thirty million dollars. Now that disturbs me on so many levels. Most of which, of course, is the thought of Hillary Rodham Clinton as President. I mean, come on, we thought John Kerry was bad?! But that's not the topic for today.

How can anyone raise that much money for a political campaign? 48 million dollars. We have people living in the gutter in our country. We have people dying of diseases that have no cure. We have people screaming about government funding for embryonic stem cell research to try to cure things like Parkinson's Disease. And we have idiots giving so much money to a political campaign that a wannabe, not qualified, Senator, former First Lady, Whitewater scamming, former Whatever has 48 million dollars for her political career. Am I the only one that sees anything wrong with this? I just cannot imagine -- 48 million dollars.

First of all, I think it's insane that it would cost eighteen million dollars to get reelected to the Senate. Eighteen million dollars can feed a lot of mouths. Eighteen million dollars can provide a lot of medicine and a lot of medical care to the underprivileged in our country. Eighteen million dollars can provide a lot of aid to hurricane ravaged parts of our country. And we're talking almost three times that amount that she expects to have by the time of the Senate elections. Whatever happened to campaign finance reform? If this is what happens after campaign finance reform, then I think we need to reform the reform. I just cannot imagine that kind of money.

You know, I started voting for President back when George Bush 41 was running for President -- and yes I voted for him, and I voted for his son. And in the first George Bush's reelection campaign, he had the misfortune to run against Ross Perot. It was like it was Slick Willie and Crazy Ross versus the President. I am a firm believer that if Ross Perot had not run, that George Bush would have been reelected to a second term in the White House. I firmly believe that Ross Perot misdirected -- or diverted -- many votes from our President to himself, causing Slick Willie to get elected to office. And so I've never had much respect for him because of his whole mindset and the way he wanted to run the country like a business, and -- that's another story. But one thing I've got to think about is, he did spend a lot of his own money running for President. Every time that he ran he, being the millionaire that he was, spent a lot of his own money. And you know, as crazy as old Ross Perot may have been, I've got to admire a guy that's willing to put his own cash on the line to further his own career.

Is our President doing something great for the world? Sure he is, and he's a great asset to the world, a great asset to the country, leader of the most powerful nation. And what's he get out of that? You telling me he gets nothing? He gets his name in history. He makes a decent amount of money if you compare it to the average citizen. A lifetime pension. A protection detail. Free medical care. He doesn't have to pay for anything. And we're paying to put him in that office? Those of us who throw our money at these candidates by the millions. I think the kind of reform we need -- if you're a candidate, if you want to seek office, you pay up the money. When I go out looking for a job, do I look for donations to help me get through, to help me get to the job? Do I ask someone to buy me a suit for the interview, or to give me limo rides to the interview? No. No, I pay the money myself. I come up with it, I put it up, I go, and I do it. I get the job, or I don't get the job, but it's all on my own terms. And yet we're taking these people who are making our laws and deciding the fate of our people and our nation, and we're giving them millions of dollars of our money -- your money, maybe, because I'm not giving it to them -- to get into office. I think it's about time they put up their own money. I think it's about time that we stop the insanity and we see some real finance reform. Maybe then we won't see nutso crazy people like Ross Perot running for President. Maybe we won't see people of such low moral character as Bill Clinton elected twice to office. And maybe we won't see the total disaster that it would be should Hillary Rodham Clinton ever win election to the White House. I just don't think we're ready to see something like that.

Think about it. Put your money where your mouth is. You want to run, you put your money on your own campaign. Somebody else wants to run, you let them finance it themselves, and let's see what kind of people we get in our White House then.

Joe