Politics is about money. I’ve been involved in enough campaigns to understand that. The main job of a candidate in any political race is to raise money. It’s not to give speeches. It’s not to talk to the press. Those are small parts of the job compared to the time you have to spend asking rich people for money.
That’s why when Newt Gingrich complains that he’s being outspent I kinda’ sorta’ think that it’s just too bad because your job is to raise money. Did he not know that?
Gingrich told the media that he was not surprised by his defeat in Florida because he was outspent 5-to-1 by Romney.
“We are going to pit people power against money power in this campaign,” Gingrich said. “Governor Romney cannot continue to outspend us 5-to-1.” Uhm. Yeah. He can. He’s that rich. And he’s pretty good at raising money.
Look, whoever is going to go up against Obama better darn well be awesome at raising money because Obama’s going to spend about a billion dollars on this campaign.
And if Newt wins the nomination we don’t have the luxury to sit and cry with him that he’s being outspent by that mean ol’ Obama. That’s how the game is played. That’s the job of a candidate. If Newt can’t raise enough money to be competitive with Mitt then there’s no way he’s going to be able to raise enough money to compete with Obama. Oh yeah, he’ll have his “people power,” whatever that is.
The fact is that advertising time on television and radio is expensive and as many people say that they don’t listen to political ads, lots more folks do. Candidates spend millions on ads for one reason. They work.
Those who don’t have the money to buy ads talk about “people power.”
Look, making calls to raise money stinks like skunkburgers. It’s humiliating for many candidates. They just don’t like doing it. They hate it.
But it seems to me that Mitt is pretty good at it. And if Newt wants to compete he better get good at it too. Because Obama’s really good at it. And the more he complains about being outspent by Mitt the more I think he’s just not ready for prime time.
