Dirty money

It’s been more than a year since major presidential hopefuls such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others announced their candidacies for the White House. Each candidate stood in front of all their supporters, many just regular, everyday Americans, and gave grand speeches explaining why they felt the country “needs them at this moment in history.” They all tried to give the kind of speech that would inspire a nation, or at least inspire the crowd of people that sat before them. They ordered the crowd to be the change in the nation they wish to see (in the case of Obama), or they assured the crowd they have the experience that we need to lead us through these dark times (in the case of Clinton or John McCain). Too often, though, after many of these intentionally bone-chilling speeches, the everyday men and women who froze their butts off to listen to them are forgotten; the men and women who saw the speeches from their nice, cozy offices while smoking their cigars that cost more than my bedroom set become the most important people to the candidates.\nThe reason for this is that money has become the name of the game. There have been attempts over the years to control campaign spending, but they obviously haven’t been very successful – in 2007 Hillary raised more than $118 million and Obama $103 million.\n Again, people, this is just in an attempt to receive the party nomination! Considering it’s illegal for companies to donate anything over $5,000 to a particular campaign, one must wonder how these candidates get so much money. (And this leads one to wonder who is in bed with whom.)\nAnother sign of money controlling everything and the little man being forgotten is all the endorsements. Every candidate competes to get the next big endorsement from a Senator from a particular state or a certain union or even a particular celebrity. The obvious reason for this is the money that each of these endorsements either directly or indirectly can bring to the candidates. But yet again, those everyday men and women who may have gotten the flu from standing out in the cold to listen to them for hours that day are overlooked or are dealt with by the hands-on crew and not the actual candidates.\nI feel the candidates should work more on getting the endorsements of the people and not endorsements of celebrities hoping their fame will get people to the polls. They should focus less on raising money and stick to raising the public’s hope, as many of them claim to do when accepting the nomination. Too often, the campaigns get the focus off the people they claim to want to help. Again, I say focus on the everyday people. They will carry you to the White House, not the big money.