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Sunday, June 22, 2008

A good reason not to vote for a politician.

Ever since the post-Watergate "reforms", there have been limits on contribution to political campaigns. The latest version is the McCain - Feingold Act passed in 2002. While many, including this writer, have doubts about the constitutionality of this law, most of it has been accepted by the Supreme Court.

Give the almost ridiculously low limits on contributions, a well financed campaign needs to sell many contributors on the merits of the candidate. Senator Barack Obama has proved that he can do it - very well.

Senator Clinton, on the other hand, has come up $22 million short and has chosen to use large amounts - $11 million according to reports - of her (and her husband's) own funds to finance the campaign. Her campaign also appears to have another $11 million - at least - in debt.

It seems that people were willing to vote for her but that she failed to sell her voters on the product - at least to the extent that cash contributions were required. Governor Romney's campaign for the Republican nomination failed as badly or worse.

The fact that a politician is unable to sell citizens on making contributions to his campaign is just another good reason for considering him unworthy of my vote.

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