2008 Presidential Race: Its all About the Benjamins

NY Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton jumped into the 2008 presidential race yesterday, immediately squaring off against Senator Barack Obama and the rest of the Democratic field in what is effectively the party’s first primary, the competition for campaign donations.

What does this have to do with democracy? Unless you consider candidates spending more time with big donors than with the people as promoting the interests of our republic:

At this early stage in the nomination fight, securing donations and signing up fund-raisers are among the best ways of showing political strength in a crowded field (seven Democrats and counting). And Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton are looking to raise at least $75 million this year alone.

Hillary has electability issues:

Several New York and Hollywood donors offered a similar assessment: they liked Mrs. Clinton as a senator, but worried that her rating in a new Washington Post/ABC News Poll released Saturday was at 41 percent, despite having nearly 100 percent name recognition.

Already Obama has engineered a big coupe by gaining support from George Soros. The Senator had to no doubt kiss the ring of the powerhouse financier:

Mr. Soros sent the maximum contribution, $2,100, to Mr. Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois, just hours after he declared his plans to run.

“Soros believes that Senator Obama brings a new energy to the political system and has the potential to be a transformational leader,” said Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Mr. Soros.

Mr. outsider, Obama, is becoming quickly an insider.

The next president will be the candidate who can best organize an effective fund raising machinery. The public doesn't even know all the deals that go on to get all that financial support. Most Donations are not about wanting good government. Bill Clinton and George Bush become President because their access to the big donors:

Mr. Obama is putting together his own finance team to focus on New York. He has hired Julianna Smoot, who helped tap Wall Street money as part of a record-setting team at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee under Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. He has also dispatched a fund-raiser, Jenny Yeager, to run his New York operation, and he is calling on Robert Wolf, chairman of UBS Americas, to raise money. (A spokeswoman for Mr. Wolf, who has donated to Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats, confirmed that he planned to help Mr. Obama.)