Presidential Campaign Fundraising:
Are we spending our money wisely?

The most recent figures indicate that Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has raised a total of $339,216,317 and spent a total of $267,545, 993. John McCain trails behind, having raised $145,466,201 and spent $109,829,375. Having won the Democratic nomination and with the migration of Clinton supporters to his campaign, Obama expects to raise an additional half a billion dollars before November. So far, the aggregate amount raised by all candidates in the presidential race is $1,087,990,028.  The final total is expected to be approximately $1.7 billion.

To put these figures in perspective, the candidates have raised an amount greater than the 2007 GDP, or total market value of all final goods and services produced, of Guyana, which was roughly $978,000,000. The South American country’s population is about 770,794. So far, Obama has spent almost as much money as the U.S. pledged to aid Darfur in 2004.

With the total money the candidates will have raised by the end of the campaign they could purchase about 425,000,000 gallons of gasoline, supply food for 733,833 Americans for an entire year, vaccinate 1,705,970,898 children against influenza, or triple the $551.1 million spent on breast cancer research in 2007 by the National Cancer Institute.

With the dollar at a historic low, real estate foreclosure at a historic high and unemployment on the rise (currently 5.50%, well over the natural rate), surely some of the billions pledged to support candidates could be utilized for more prudent applications.

Ryan Greiss

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