Thursday, February 28, 2008

Big-money politics

Polprint is trying to get her head around the vast sums that Clinton and Obama have raised in February. Clinton pulled in $35 million, comparable to Obama’s last-month total. But Obama has again blown her away, with estimates at $50 million, according to the New York Times. No wonder he wants to drop his public-financing pledge.

Perhaps these figures should elicit yawns in the billionaire age. But to put them in context, the Democrats’ total for one month is nearly equivalent to what Mercy Corps, a charity, received in global private donations--both monetary and in-kind--in 2006.

The figures seem all the more remarkable given the gloom over the economy. Polprint cannot help but wonder if political giving will take up a substantial share of Americans’ philanthropic budgets this year—leaving Mercy Corps and its peers worse off than before.

No comments: