On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 12:19 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > NPR had an interesting story on Morning Edition this morning regarding the > impact of Trump's Billions on the campaign. > > > http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/427857932/are-donald-trumps-pockets-deep-enough-to-fund-his-campaign?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150731 > > First, there continues to be disagreement over how many billions Trump has > (Trump has claimed that he has $8B or $9B or most recently, $10B, Forbes > estimates $4B, Bloomberg $2.9B). One of my theories has been that one > reason Trump is in the race is to create an enhanced perception of his net > wealth. Also, the Trump campaign has billed various Trump enterprises for > more than half a million dollars in services over the last three month; in > itself this is not a game changing amount (though every dollar helps) but > it does not include an estimate of the value in advertising and marketing > to having the Trump name on television so much, along with the logos for > the hotels and stuff. > > ME also points out that Romney and Obama each spent a total of $1.2B on > their campaigns in 2012. Trump has enough wealth to cover that from his > pocket (though how much of that is really liquid?), but they point out that > "Historically, self-financed candidates have usually been successful > businessmen, who often end up handling a long, drawn-out campaign like an > investment gone bad: They pull the plug." Unless even a protracted and > unlikely campaign is generating a lot more business benefits than I can > imagine, it seems that even Trump would not just pour mountains of his own > cash into the enterprise. > > But the main point of the piece is the equalizing role of the SuperPacs. > The other GOP candidates may not have the personal wealth Trump does, but > many have friends who are his equal or more, and the SCTOUS decision they > purchased some years ago allows them to give as much as they want to the > SuperPacs. This is not quite as valuable as Trump's own money (he can give > as much as he wants to himself, and he gets a discount rate for TV ad time, > while SuperPacs pay the full rate), it does mean that there are effective a > lot of really rich guys running for president, and Trump is probably not > the richest. <[email protected]> >
For me, the question that defines this GOP race is why there are 16 declared candidates. Without the fragmentation of 16 candidates, it's quite possible that Trump would not be a front runner, and if he is not a front runner he may well lose interesting in continuing to campaign. So: why Rick Santorum? Santorum last won an election 15 years ago and he has spent the time since appealing to only a small sliver of the electorate. My guess is he runs because there is money in it for him. Whether it is just to build his brand for post-campaign economic opportunities or there is some way he can charge expenses for his campaign in a way he comes out loaded with cash, a futile campaign for him is still lucrative for him to pursue. And he has a billionaire backer keeping him in the race. What's true for Santorum is true for at least 8 or 9 other candidates. Running for president has become a money making opportunity in ways it hasn't in the past. My guess is that Trump is following the same opportunity. If he wanted to self-finance, he would borrow against his assets, not liquidate them. At some point, if he started winning some primary races, he would have to borrow larger sums without knowing how or where he would get the cash to pay the loans back. In a general election race it would hang over his head as the media would report on the size of the debt with the question of how he could come up with that cash while in office. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
