[BlackGriffen]

OpenSecrets has collected some data on where the Presidential hopefuls are getting their money.

Some choice excerpts:

Merrill Lynch, the financial services giant, tops the list of contributors to President Bush's re-election campaign through September of this year, with $364,000 in donations from employees and their immediate family members, according to a preliminary study of third-quarter campaign finance filings by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Two of Dean's top five donors -- and 10 of his top 20 -- are groups of university employees. University of California employees attained the highest ranking of any organization, with more than $63,000 in contributions to Dean. Dean has raised money from the professors and staff of at least 450 colleges and universities. Those in the education field have contributed a total of $852,000 to Dean's campaign, behind only the legal profession ($966,000).

BlackGriffen

[Lerkfish]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
OpenSecrets has collected some data on where the Presidential hopefuls are getting their money.

Some choice excerpts:

BlackGriffen

interesting, but we should be careful because the data is not as complete as it could be..for example, many donors to one party also donate to the other party, a sort of "hedging one's bets" to some degree. The amounts should reflect that in some way but probably don't (or at least don't seem to).

That having been said, I find the size of Bush's warchest in comparison to any other democratic hopeful a bit odd for an incumbent president. Just how worried is he, and why is he that worried?

I edited to add: what this also means is that we can expect a glut of negative attack ads that will assail ad nauseum during the campaign. We can expect them from both sides, but since Bush already has a warchest in excess of ten times the amount of his nearest rival, we will most likely be seeing relentless Bush sponsored attack ads on the democrats.

This will probably get very ugly before its all over.

[BlackGriffen]

You have to wonder, though, if Bush may just shoot himself in the foot.

If the media is "all Bush, half the time" and "All anti-donkey, the other half," people may get so fed up with it that they turn on him.

I dunno. I would hope that people would see though attack ads, but if they didn't work, people wouldn't use them.

BG

[iWrite]

Great site, actually. I'm bookmarking it.

Lawyers are the biggest contributor for Bush? Figures. But, when you consider how easy it is to get a law degree or pass the bar, consider how many lawyers are in this country (and how many are in politics themselves), it's really not that surprising.

I'd like to see the data for how many BANKS are supporting Bushwhacked. THAT would be interesting. Not just Merrill Lynch, but other financial institutions. Bet it's a LOT. The banks are out of control in this country -- seriously. They have no limits when it comes to growth based on credit of hardworking individuals -- the credit card debt in this country is staggering. Once they've got a person by the [blank]s, they will wring every last cent out of them via their credit card(s). Plus, now the banks are lobbying the White House and Bushwhacked HARD to put severe limits on when and how a person can declare bankruptcy -- especially when it comes to credit card debt.

This country is bankrupt in many ways -- but the banks are fine.

[Lerkfish]

this other macNN thread

shows another example of who is buying whom...