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Obama Outspends Hillary 3-1
If the shoe was on the other foot, wouldn't all the Obamanaics be crying foul here? I can see the headlines now...
"Hillary is trying to buy the election."
"Hillary spends millions to distract from her record"
"Obama succeeds despite heavy spending by Hillary"
I'm proud of the fact that although Obama has spent an absolute ton of money on ads in states like Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Hillary has managed to succeed in those states.
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As you already know, Obama is having to overcome a deficit of two decades of political coverage. Hillary has lead in every state, until the people got to know Obama. There aren't very many ways that he can make himself a house-hold name--a status that Hillary already enjoys.
You can be proud that Hillary has won states in which she started out having a 15%+ margin over Obama and managed to still eek out a victory if you'd like, but you can't include Texas in that list.
April 9, 2008 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Crying foul? No foul-play involved in buying ads. If you have the resources to do so you'd be a fool not to. And if you recall, after Texas and Ohio, the line was that Hillary won despite being outspent by Obama. He also outspent her in 5:1 in Wisconsin, which likely paid off; as well as in many of the other Super Tuesday contests.
I have seen many Clinton supporters on blogs elsewhere make comments that he is trying to buy the election. Whether it is Clinton supporters or, if the shoe were on the other foot, Obama supporters, the claim is still ridiculous.
He outspends her because he can, having also outraised her. If the shoe were on the other foot in that case, Senator Clinton would also be outspending him at this point. She simply can't afford it now.
April 9, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
If millions of people like me keep donating money to him because we want him to win, what do you propose he do with the money? Give it to charity and lose? Like, for the sake of the Hillary supporters?
Which reminds me, time to pitch in some more $$. Hillary got $2.5m from the Elton John contests. Tickets were $2500. In the meantime Obama gives away free tickets to concerts. He knows the money's coming anyway.
It's not buying the presidency. It's millions of regular Americans putting their money where their mouths are.
OOOOOOOOO-BAMA!
April 9, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
1) Obama won more delegates in Texas than did Hillary.
2) Hillary did better in Ohio because her campaign successfully pushed their NAFTA/Canada lie.
3) The amount that Obama spends is a direct result of the number of individual donors that are fueling his campaign.
4) If Hillary was running a more efficient campaign, she would have more support and more money to spend on ads.
5) Do you really think that Hillary wouldn't be spending more if she had it? If she could pay her outstanding debts? If people like Mark Penn weren't sucking up millions of her supporters dollars? If it all hadn't gone to expensive hotel rooms and extravagent food, beverage and decoration indulgences?
April 9, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton AND Obama have BOTH outspent the Bidens, Dodds, Pauls, Gravels, Kuciniches, Tancredos, Huckabees, Thompsons, and the other little guys. If you can raise the money, you can spend it. You don't get to call out your opponents for raising more and therefore spending more than you. In fact, they are the ones who should be calling YOU out for raising too little. If Biden or Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich were such great candidates, they'd have been able to raise sufficient money and voter support to have competed viably in their campaigns. I love Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich - they have plenty more "experience" than Senator Clinton. I'm not lamenting the fact that Hillary Clinton outraised and outspent them - that's partly their fault and the American people's fault, but not Hillary's. LIkewise, you can't hold it against Obama for being more adept at raising the money, or for spending it to win.
April 9, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink