Elite? Come on, who really is elite?

http://www.businesstoday.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=479&Itemid=1

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Clinton did attempt to make use of her ideal starting position. Clinton came into January with $19 million to spend, about $6 million more than Obama had at the time. By the end of the month, each had spent roughly $30 million dollars. However, a presidential race is much more a marathon than a sprint, and money spent must continually be renewed. Clinton, though, employed a top-heavy fund-raising system, relying far too greatly on a few wealthy supporters. This over-reliance severely hindered Clinton, as it’s not easy to ask for additional financial help from people who have already donated thousands of dollars. As a result, Clinton was only able to raise $13.8 million in the month of January. Meanwhile, Obama took a more balanced fundraising approach. Senator Obama raised $36.1 million in January, the most money ever raised in a single month in an American political campaign. Remarkably, $28 million of this came from small donors through the Internet.

Of course, it’s not simply how much money you spend, but how you spend it. Even before the presidential campaign, supporters worried about Clinton’s luxurious expenditures. In the 2006 New York Senate race, the Clinton used roughly $30 million against marginal competition. Supporters wondered how Senator Clinton would handle legitimate opposition. These worries appear well founded as the Clinton camp seems to use all-possible means to exhaust funds. During the Nevada caucuses, Clinton only reserved the most expensive hotel accommodations, renting $25,000-a-night rooms at the Bellagio. During the Iowa caucuses, Senator Clinton spent nearly $100,000 at local grocery stores in Des Moines, hoping to attract voters with free buffets. She additionally purchased truckloads of snow shovels in preparation of a snowstorm that never arrived. The more one digs into Clinton’s purchases, the more outrageous they become, as she spent $11,000 on pizza and $1,200 on Dunkin’ Donuts in the month of January alone. It seems both America and Hillary run on Dunkin’ Donuts.

Perhaps most ridiculous about this situation is that Clinton is paying high-priced consultants to make these (poor) decisions. Altogether, Clinton has spent nearly $10 million dollars on consulting alone. Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn and his team received $3.8 million in January. However, Clinton’s campaign is not even Mr. Penn’s chief concern, as Penn additionally represents Microsoft. During these recent months, the computer giant has been on its own campaign of sort trying to purchase Yahoo, leaving Mr. Penn in a definite conflict of focus.

Ultimately, this sort of management and spending doomed Senator Clinton in February. In Wisconsin, Barrack Obama spent $1.5 million on advertising, five times the amount Senator Clinton did. Unsurprisingly, Obama ended up winning Wisconsin by a wide margin. Additionally, Clinton’s dwindling fees left her campaign undermanned. For example, in Kansas, Obama had six times the staff members Clinton did. As a result, Clinton ended up loosing the eleven primaries following Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, when the race was still in a dead heat.
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