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The Election Deception Game… the Money Edition

(Sigh) Here we go again.

In the press release the other day from the Giuliani camp [1]:

The Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee announced today that for the second quarter in a row the campaign leads the Republican field in dollars raised. The campaign showed another strong quarter, totaling over $11 million raised and over $16 million total cash on hand. The campaign reported raising over $10.5 million in primary dollars this quarter.

Of course CNN [2] is making quite a bit of it.

But why is this horse race always measured in terms of money?  The inaccuracy of that measurement would seem to be exemplified by, on the other side, Obama leading the money chase, and yet being 33 points behind in the race that really matters… the number of people who will actually vote for him.

Similarly, Ron Paul hauled in $5MUSD in Q3.  Yet, if it’s possible for anyone’s chances to get elected being more laughable, I don’t see how.  I figure Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich stand about the same chance of getting elected, regardless of how much money they manage to take in, and for the same reason; they’re both demonstrably nuts, and everyone including a lot of folks throwing money at them, know it.  They do however, serve admirably to demonstrate the difference between leading the money race, and leading the race period.  They’ve managed to get as far as they have in the money race, because they have a few supporters with deep pockets, not because they stand a chance in hell of actually getting elected.

election_money.jpg [3]The point that I’m making here , is that the amount of money that a particular candidate has managed to sock away, is at best a less than direct indicator of how many actual supporters they have. In fact, I think it more deceptive, than indicative….  And I wonder if that isn’t the purpose of releasing such stories in the first place… deception.

Notice, for example, that when the mainstream media starts talking about the amount of money collected by such and such, and so and so, that the subject is invariably either a full goose bozo kook, such as Ron Paul, the one leaning farthest to the left in a given gaggle, such as this case…..Giuliani. The frequency with which this kind of pattern comes up… which is to say every bloody election cycle… strains credibility that it is not a concerted effort on the part of the mainstream media.

Granted, that some of this effect is the mainstream media, who couldn’t be bothered to do a real job, is probably just reposting press releases from the various camps.  But I doubt that’s all that’s going on here.