In the wake of the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision letting big-bucks political donors go all in, here’s the bad news by the numbers.
From the NBC News digest First Read:
Political spending from outside groups — either created or bankrolled by American billionaires — has skyrocketed from $193 million in 2004 and $338 million in 2008, to a whopping $1 billion in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. To put this $1 billion in outside spending in perspective, it’s almost TWICE what John Kerry and George W. Bush spent COMBINED in the 2004 presidential race ($655 million). And it’s THREE TIMES the amount John McCain spent in the 2008 election ($333 million). Another way to look at all of this money: Overall political spending on races (presidential plus congressional) has DOUBLED from $3 billion in 2000 to $6.2 billion in 2012. And in presidential races alone, the combined amount that George W. Bush and Al Gore spent in 2000 (about $250 million) QUADRUPLED to the combined amount Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent in 2012 ($1 billion-plus). And that doesn’t count the political-party spending…
Yow.
Fasten your seat belts (as Bette Davis might say).
It’s going to be a bucky night.
Campaign Outsider 
The trade is in having the incumbent with all of the money and the challenger with little or none.
That was the consequence of the donor limits; it ended up being an incumbent protection scheme.
Sorry. I don’t find this ruling upsetting at all.
What I DO find upsetting is the incompetent incumbents that continue to hold office and do little that is of any good to The Nation.
I can’t remember – what was the name of the obsequious little dog that tagged along with the boxer “Spike” in the old cartoons?