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Charles and David Koch
Campaign fundraising in the 2008 presidential election was thought to have reached dizzying heights. Republican nominee John McCain raised $370 million for his presidential bid, while Democrat Barack Obama shattered records en route to a $750 million haul. The totals, at the time, seemed staggering.
Four years and a Supreme Court ruling later, the 2008 fundraising figures will very likely appear puny by the time the 2012 dust settles.
Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives -- including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November's elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups' internal operations.
That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections -- twice what they had been expected to commit.
Karl Rove's Crossroads operation alone is expected to collect $300 million -- nearly as much as McCain's entire campaign total in the last election.
Indeed, it's important to realize that the playing field has changed in fundamental ways. In the traditional model, we'd see two major-party candidates, each backed by their respective national party. In 2012, President Obama's campaign team will effectively have two extremely well-financed opponents: Mitt Romney and the RNC, which are projected to raise at least $800 million, as well as a $1 billion outside attack operation.
Obama, in other words, is going to face a far-right wall of at least $1.8 billion between now and Election Day. To say this is without precedent in a major democracy is a dramatic understatement.
Won't Romney also have to face two comparable entities? So far, that seems unlikely -- Obama is having some fundraising success, and labor unions will play a role, but a super PAC supporting the president, Priorities USA Action, has so far struggled to keep up.
There are two related angles to this to keep in mind.
First, unlike previous elections, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for "dark money" contributions -- right-wing gazillionaires can invest heavily in destroying the president, but can now legally keep their donations secret. We can see the results of folks trying to buy the keys to the White House for Mitt Romney, but we won't be able to see who's writing all the checks (or what they'll expect in return for their investment).
Second, the prospect of a $1 billion far-right operation suggests conservative heavyweights believe they have a real shot at success. If the Kochs and their cohorts were convinced Obama is likely to win, they could easily start buying congressional and gubernatorial races; the fact that they have their eyes on the most sought after prize tells us they have confidence they can succeed.
On a related note, Tim Dickinson has a great piece in the new issue of Rolling Stone, highlighting each of the wealthy Republicans lining up to get Romney elected.
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OOPs there goes democracy.
Is this an F'ed up country or what .
Imagine in some kind of crazy science fiction novel , those billions were put into job creation (other than copy writers and ad firms)
Think of all the consumers you could create that would make the the Koch companies richer .
Like I said science fiction
Given that it is still the people who will decide who wins--ooops I forgot about the voter suppression on the right side. Still we do have the hope of somewhat fair elections where we can make sure politicians willing to get the money out--ooops that ain't likely.
Waaaah we're screwed . I for one will vote anyway and then go home to watch and see just how F@#&% we have become.
It is just a legalized bribery to give people in this country the "feel good" feeling when we point our fingers to other countries and say "Aren't we glad we don't live in one of those corrupted third world countries whose election is always bought?"
We're about to see for sure just how accurate Mencken was when he said "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." I have an activity I love that regularly takes me into "bright red" California (i.e., the Inland Empire and Orangatang County) and those people are pretty damned stupid; I am frequently ashamed to admit I share anything in common with them, let alone a lifelong interest like this one.
In a world where reality matters Obama should win 75% to 25%. But the money only works when public interest and attention to facts are minimal. Far more than the SuperPacs' money is the media ownership and standards. I suspect Obama will get 55%, but gubernatorial and congressional races are there for a price.
Meanwhile in State houses everywhere...
There is a reason the right screeches state rights. It is cheaper to "buy local."
i hope obama wins, but if he does, i think his margin will be closer to 50.5%, which, considering the money used against him, will still be amazing. what's scary is thinking down the road, when the democratic nominee will no longer have the advantage of incumbency to offset the scalia advantage.
Yet another reason to vote out the GOP and put people into office that are willing to:
1) enact legislation over-riding Citizens United
2) pay attention to the issues and vote for candidates that actually put forward plans dealing with the issues - other than cut taxes & deregulation
3) to keep the Supreme Court from going all the way to the reich.
Apparently not...
So which is it? They're secret or not? How about wealthy liberals lining up behind Obama, who are they?
As always, IOKIYAD.
To me it's okay if you still have a shred of humanity, you still offer at least semi-viable legislation that has again, even a shred of the public interest in mind. Otherwise good day sir troll!
How much is the pay these days for trolling repuknican propaganda and talking points on progressive web sites?
Typical Republican thinking. Everything comes down to a simple minded either-or dichotomy and any suggestion that things might be even the teeniest bit complex is just an opportunity for a banal "gotcha!" moment.
Because clearly, it's not possible that we might know some of the people behind this flood of oligarch money but not others, or that we might know who some of them are but have very incomplete knowledge about how much they're spending and what they're spending it on. No, clearly, either we know everything there is to know about them or we know nothing and anything to the contrary is just a big ol' lie.
There's a BIG difference between DISCLOSURE and DISCOVERY, Shooter.
SOV: Unfortunately, the pay for trolling propaganda is same as what Right-Wing Billionaires pay their help for any work: As little as possible.
Fortunately for you, Democrats aren't subject to either.
Shooter, you have been called a troll....I have been called that many times here. It seems if you are not on the cheerleading team and 100% in lockstep thinking your are assumed to be a paid blogger....like anyone would pay someone to respond on a silly blog like this. Always amusing when this troll crap comes up. You obviously rocked somebody's boat in the wakeless lake of the Maddow Blog. :)
Shooter 242: go shoot yourself and make the world a better place.
skip , it is overly apparent by Shooters lame response to being "nailed" by that comment , that cheer leading is not the issue here , the gop are embracing the fact that they can do all this behind curtains , while once again dems want full disclosure on who is trying to buy our democracy , that your types think it is alright to have faceless ( foreign ? ) people effecting our elections says it all ...And the fact that shooter thinks they have been presenting the info happily says it all also , by the next eletion it will all be faceless
Free speech from invisible entities , another messed up example of how conservatives want to govern america , kkk style
Patango,
Where did I say it was alright to have "faceless (foreign)" money? I only commented on the troll name-calling. And speaking of foreign money, my fiance's sister took her neice and nephew down to Grant Park on election night of 2008 and struck up a conversation with a Belgian couple who flew in for the event. They were very proud of the fact that they had donated money to his campaign through the internet. Now it probably wasn't a great amount of money and I know there are some safeguards out there to prevent this, but I just want to point out the fact that it is possible that having foreign money involved in our elections as nothing really new.
Oh TC you never disappoint - you always have such mature respones :).
Too much of the time, we patronize these rich people who really are the ones who cause all this hardship and trouble in the world, especially what is going on in Syria now. How much would these rich bozos like it, if they were dropped right in the middle of the action with a little peashooter that most of the poor only have to protect themselves? How fast would the rich bozo cry foul and it wasn’t fair, when they are the cause of all this? How fast would they cry they deserved better, when they caused all of this? How fast would they think to do something better, when they caused all of this? How fast do you think they would treat people better, when they would have to sit there in the middle of the action to see what they have done? Our problem is we patronize the rich bozos too much and in the meantime they too often are just butchers and murderers.
You are spot on Deb. Butchers indeed and the source of so much cruelty in the name of avarice and I daresay metaphorically, wicked self indulgence.
That amount of money will buy a lot of negativity. It is easy to imagine a summer and fall campaign where the blistering attacks on Obama could turn off prospective Obama voters. Why? One reason is cynicism. I can hear it now; "they all do it," "a pox on both houses," etc.
Cynicism does not help progressive causes. It can depress voter turn out; particularly with a section of the electorate that Obama needs to turn out: young voters. Obama wrote these words in 2006: "A polarized electorate-or one that easily dismisses both parties because of the nasty, dishonest tone of the debate-works perfectly well for those to chip away at the very idea of government. After all, a cynical electorate is a self-centered electorate."
So the key is to assertively respond to the negativity with a spirited defense of the role of government; a can-do and positive approach to helping to solve societal problems. And stay on course; don't let ideological attacks become a distraction.
http://karltrautman.com/
I love the healine Steve and I surely hope they drown in the money, all of them!
Instead of trying to take down our President - why don't these corporate fat cats use your influence on Congress to achieve something constructive for the entire country? Three sick egotistical maniacs with billions of dollars out to destroy democracy and establish a oligarchy government to be run by a few rich and corrupt fat cats that have no moral aptitude or ethics Government is being bought and sold on both sides of the asile, we need true campaign finance reform righ now. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Besides any ideological considerations, I worry about the infrastructure being built by all this money.
It looks like bull@!$%# is well on its way to becoming the USA's number one industry.
Really! I think there should be a BullS*it IPO .
Invest in BullS*it futures , become a millionaire
Buy hay?
The GOP is forever claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility. The spendthrift ways of Reagan and particularly the second Bush have exploded that myth. And now we can see how reckless spending by the GOP SuperPACs extends and deepens this proof of the right wing's chronic inability to value a dollar. If these morons spend $1 billion and lose -- and they could well lose -- it will be one more example of the same kind of Republican wastefulness, excess, and flash-glitz spending that in another context turns government surpluses into deficits breathtakingly fast. Have they never heard of ROI?
Amen.
I've said it over and over:
- the sheer volume and intensity of the carpet bombing from the Republican Ministry of (un)Truth will be unimaginable.
- An intelligent person, to maintain sanity, will have no choice but to avert their eyes and ears the messages will be so counter to reality and nauseating to the stomach.
- Democrats are NOT going to know what hit them.
And yet, Democrats are sitting on their hands as we speak letting the wingnotoshere define them with lies like these:
- Obama big spender,
- presiding over massive regulation growth, uncertainty,
- ACA will cost trilions to implement,
- Democrats won't compromise,
- Solyndra is a big deal,
- Democrats are Socialists,
- ...
And what do we get? Like usual, Democratic crickets.
It's going to be ugly. Very, very ugly. Get used to President Romney and say goodbye to the 20th century, hello to the 18th.
I don't think "Democrats are sitting on their hands" re the issues you say the GOP is blaming them for. Obama's team is putting out rather good ads every day that responds to one or another of these 'charges.'
Thanks for the link to the Right-Wing Billionaires story. The frustrating thing is how so few can do so much damage to the country. Most rich people made their money selling stuff to the middle class, and understand that a healthy middle class is good for them and their wealth. Those few that didn't and don't seem to be taking over. That's the real shame in this election.
Barack Obama shattered records en route to a $750 million haul.
So, this time it looks like the Republicans will spend more. It seemed OK to most folks on the Democrat side when their side spent record amounts, but now...
The President's re-election campaign has said they will spend a Billion this time around. And that is not including Super PAC money. I will bet that in the end, the spending by both sides will be close.
What was so stunning about Obama's fundraising is that the vast majority of it came from 'the little people' -- this being a democratic, small 'd,' process. That's what the looney billionaires became scared to death by: the little people getting engaged on the side that would actually help them, rather than transfer their own wealth, however paltry, directly to the already rich.
I've heard, actually, that business schools teach, first and foremost, that capitalism IS the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
At least Romney and the other quarter, half and full billionaires do firmly believe this. So do their GOP bootlickers in the House and Senate/
Good point JJFFMM but I am not so sure it was a "vast" majority, especially when you hear about the 4 AND 5 figure per plate fundraising dinners he attends (usually in New York, Chicago and of course Hollywood). Either way, it is amazing that this much $$ is being spent by both sides. It is good for some industries at least, like advertising, printing, etc. :)
As someone who raised $350K of the money Obama took in back in 2008, I can tell you that every penny of it came from middle class people who had never donated before, who had to re-jiggle their budgets and personally forego something in order to make their donation, and they all apologized for not being able to give more.
That's a whole lot different from a pair of sh*theads born on third base like the Cock(less) brothers.
skip ,,,but I am not so sure it was a "vast" majority
That is because your a typical uninformed dolt
Yeah Patango,
You're probably right about me being uniformed. Like I'm sure that $40,000 a plate fundraiser by George Clooney is just a lie made up by the evil Republicans:). I will grant you that he definitely got more from middle class folks, but to think that he does not recieve big money from banks, corporations and some of the elite rich (like Hollywood en masse) is what I would call being uniformed...but I will not call you a dolt. I mean really, what is your point with the name calling? We can debate like adults, can't we?
Here's one thing to think about: The Koch Brothers are 77 (Charles, born in 1935) and 72 (David, born in 1940). Their excessive involvement in the political system is a problem that will shortly be solved by time.
It's so weird. Everyone here is saying the exact same thing that all the people in the right wing looney bin is saying. "IT'S THOSE GUYS OVER THERE!" I have come to conclusion. It's both of you. The extreme right and left are taking us on a march of STUPID. Next election? You are going to see us (Independent) voters turn out in droves an probably yeah, we might vote for Romney. But not because he can buy TV ads. Have you been seeing the ratings? No it's because at least that guy was kind of a liberal-ish (R) and this guy that's in has proven himself to be fully left leaning lunatic. Another rep of the 10% of voters that are left wing psychopaths. Luckily we don't have a rep from the 10% of the right wing psychopaths in there. But us 80% people? Us normal D's R's I's and so on? Were are going to SHOW UP. Deal with it.
It never ceases to amaze and sadden me that so many people - good, decent, and smart people - shake the hand of a republican moron liar like Romney while he looks them straight in the eye, grills them a toothy sh it eating grin, and tells them how he is going to RUIN their lives (i.e. “…I like to fire people…”, bust their unions, lower their wages, ship their job overseas, threaten the world with another god-forsaken and disastrous blood soaked war in the Middle East - maybe even lobbing a few nukes just for fun, kill their Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, eliminate Food Stamps, EPA, Education, restrict Voting Rights, and not insignifigantly, make American women's VAGINAL HEALTH CARE the strict purvue of OLD WHITE MEN) and they'll vote for him ANYWAY? Truly, truly mind boggling.
Sometimes I wonder if these teabuggers have any cerebral cortex at all. It does show you the power of the Right Wing Cabal of Liars and Thieves made infamous by li'l bush, Slippery Dick Cheney, Turdblossom Rove, and the comedians Rush Limpballs, Bill-o the Clown, Glen Dork, and their favorite failed carpenter Sean Handjobbity, amongst a huge slew of others spread out across literally THOUSANDS of right-wing nut job radio and TV stations across the country.
If Mittens gets elected (and god help us all if he does), America is in for a terrible world of hurt. Oligarchy, plutocracy, and abject poverty will be Mitten's hard won trophies and he'll be beamingly proud of them.
Banana republic here we come.