John McCain's And Barack Obama's Billion-Dollar Election

If nothing else is obscene about this presidential election (and plenty is IMHO), then the fact that together the candidates will be spending $8 per vote to win the White House clearly meets and exceeds the obscenity descriptor.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)--Barack Obama and John McCain uncorked massive get-out-the-vote operations in more than a dozen battleground states Sunday, millions of telephone calls, mailings and door-knockings in a frenzied, fitting climax to a record-shattering $1 billion campaign. Together, they'll spend about $8 per presidential vote.

Think of it, a billion dollars! That money could have been used to buy up a lot of bad mortgages and keep thousands of Americans in their homes. It could have been used as a critical influx of liquidity for some small banks to bail them out of the credit crisis. It could have educated a lot of poor American children or provided healthcare for a considerable period for all Americans who are uninsured. Instead, it was used to fill the airwaves with the same unadulterated blather we've been subjected to for months now.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is so flush with cash, a close friend of mine went to work for him as a volunteer three weeks ago and my friend was offered a paid staff position less than two weeks before the election. This never happens so late in the campaign cycle, because most candidates are tapped out at that point.

Obama's half-hour paid advertisements on several TV networks this past week were more evidence he's raised too much money. If Obama meant what he said about spreading the wealth around, he should have started with his own campaign coffers and spread some of that wealth around rather than impose new tax burdens on Americans in the middle of a recession.

--Click here to read more by Bonnie Erbe.

--Click here to read more about Campaign 2008.

--Click here to read more about Barack Obama.

By Bonnie Erbe