Money Talks Along The Campaign Walk:

At this point it has been months already since the start of commentary about the 2008 presidential election. This election like others the fundamental part in the process is campaign finance. Hillary Clinton, “raised a record $26 million for her presidential campaign in the first three months of the year and added $10 million more leftover from her Senate account”(Clinton Record). Along with her impressive figure was Mitt Romney with $23 million dollars and Barack Obama with $21 million. All three have outstanding contributions for the race and all are top contenders. Figures have shown that money is now the equivalent to votes in American democracy, campaign finance is crucial to getting messages out. In the 2000 election Republicans raised $239 million, Democrats $218 million, Bush won, Gore did not.(Campaign Finance) The next election in 2004 Bush spent $306.3 million verses Sen. John Kerry, spent $241.7 million. In 2004 also, 96 percent of House races and 91 percent of Senate, the candidate who spent the most money won (Money wins). Though there are times when money does not equal votes, it sure is easier to run a campaign when you have the media at your finger tips. It is surprising that third in the polls Mitt Romney has actually raised the most money especially verse that of John McCain.
The media must make a fortune off election campaigns, the more money that a candidate can put out there the more their views are discussed and potential increase in the polls. For this same reason, people that are not on the nightly news do not make it past the presidential primaries. It is questionable as to where this money all goes, besides the commercials and TV appearances, it is amusing that the media takes the time to report on these staggering amounts of money, but how relevant is it. It comes down to the candidates running for government offices are trying effect policy, if they spent more time focusing on accomplishing things rather than money maybe the system would change. It would be great if media reported equally and presented the views of each potential candidate. The money spent is being giving by large organizations/corporations and PAC’s, all of which have the money to spend, by this the average voter is may be getting pushed aside for these special interest seeking groups. When the common phrase is used that “elections have become candidate centered” do people really mean money centered these days. The (Fox News: Campaign Spending) article gives you a clear picture of how this is just the beginning as you can see candidate and presidential hopeful John McCain lags behind everyone with just $12.5 million, and he is one of the republican front runners, so that being said, one may be shocked later on when GOP primary verses totals for the general election start rolling in.