** http://www.cipa-apex.org/toomuch/Weeklies2005/June202005.html, citing “Millionaire Club Grows in Senate”, Roll Call (June 15, 2005)
***http://kasusa.squarespace.com/interest/2006/9/11/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-roll-call.html
Bush is President Because of Money
You know this, but it bears repeating. George W. Bush is President because the wealthiest people in this country decided to make him president. They then gave him, and only him, the outlandish amounts of money that made him the early prohibitive favorite to win the 2000 Republican primary and then gave him all the money he needed to actually win. Repeat for the 2000 general election (without all the cash, that assist from the Republicans on the Supreme Court would have never been invoked).
More Money Means Electoral Victory
Perhaps the most memorable moment for me in the media coverage on the eve of the 2004 elections was a comment by Jeff Greenfield, then of CNN. When asked what he believed was the most significant development in that election, Greenfield pointed to the fact that John Kerrey had surprisingly been able to raise enough money from various sources to remain competitive with Bush when most analysts had believed Bush’s financial advantage would bury Kerrey and put the election wholly out of reach by Summer.
Think about that for a minute. For the mainstream media, Greenfield is a pretty sharp political analyst with more than 25 years of experience, including reporting deeply respected by Ted Koppel when Greenfield appeared on Nightline in the 80’s and 90’s. In such an important election, with such incredibly high stakes of war and peace and global warming and a rapidly segregating economy, the most single most significant factor to a long-experienced observer and analyst was . . .
MONEY! MONEY!
NOT ISSUES.
NOT CHARACTER.
NOT THE WAR(S)
NOT THE ECONOMY
NOT EVEN “VALUES VOTERS”
MONEY.
IT WAS FUCKING MONEY!!!!
Additionally, consider this from New Jersey Public Interest Research Group
