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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (91523)	3/25/2007 5:25:26 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Why nothing fundamental ever changes in Washington no matter which party is in power. Money Talks What a forum held by the investment bank Bear Stearns tells us about the state of our presidential campaigns. By Robert B. Reich Web Exclusive: 03.21.07 Print Friendly \| Email Article The powerhouse investment bank Bear Stearns has invited the major Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to its New York headquarters to address its five hundred managing directors, and to pass around the hat. Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican front-runner, kicked off the Bear Stearns’ forum a few weeks ago. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has also addressed the firm. I may be old fashioned, but I liked it the old way -- when presidential candidates spent months trudging through New Hampshire and Iowa, addressing citizens at town meetings and other public forums. It used to be that’s how candidates got known. Their reputations spread by word of mouth. Then if they won the early primaries, the national media would spotlight them, and they'd emerge from obscurity to take the national stage. Now candidates spend less time addressing people in New Hampshire and Iowa and more time addressing, well, investment banks. Part of this is because the presidential primaries are now national referenda. Almost ten months before the first primary voter casts the first vote, the major candidates on both sides are already national celebrities. They don’t need to spend time at meetings sponsored by the Marshall Town, Iowa, Chamber of Commerce or by the Nashua, New Hampshire League of Women Voters. Everyone already knows Giuliani, McCain, Gingrich, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. In addition, the little person-to-person state primaries don’t count as much as they used to. Now that the big primaries are being pushed forward to February 5, 2008, you can kiss all those local coffees and town meetings goodbye. It’s going to be big media, all the way, probably starting as early as next September. Maybe even sooner. All of which means the candidates need more and more money to buy television ads. It's estimated that the 2008 presidential election will cost a total of over $2 billion, most of it going into television. TV advertising is where the candidates duke it out for president, and where the primary candidates will duke it out to decide who’s going to be the major parties' candidate for president. The national media -- which has a strong financial stake in seeing this sum continue to rise -- is already handicapping the candidates according to how much money they've raised. It's no surprise that Bear Stearns is having an open house where each candidate can come, make a pitch, and answer questions from the managing directors. Candidates in search of money are increasingly turning to Wall Street because Wall Street is where the money is. In 2004, Wall Street contributed a total of $339 million to candidates for federal office, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. That’s about 60 percent more than the second-largest sources of funds, which were corporate lobbyists and lawyers. But as politicians stop addressing town meetings and start addressing investment banks, you gotta wonder: What are they promising to do? And how are they learning what America needs them to do? Robert Reich is a Prospect co-founder. This column is adapted from Professor Reich's weekly commentary on American Public Radio's Marketplace. His website can be found here and his blog can be found here. *