Have any of you taken the time to look at the spending of the candidates running for President? At a time when our U.S. Dollar is declining … when the economy is in the tank … when service agencies are turning away needy people who truly need their help … when schools are begging for desparately needed funds … the campaigns are pleading for and spending your precious donations hand over fist to feed the media agencies. As far as I can tell, the only ones making out this campaign season are the news and media agencies. It’s just outrageous … spending as of Apr. 20th: $849,655,926.00. (D: $533,681,725; R: $315,971,201 … biggest spender: Obama at $234,745,081). Before this campaign season is over, the two major parties alone will have spent well over $1B with media agencies … and none of that money which could have been used to make real, meaningful impact in the lives of American families will do anything more than bolster media agency coffers.

There has got to be a better way … one that’s not fraught with campaign manipulation. A classic example is what happened with Michigan. Obama pulled his name off the ballot before the primary. Yet, the Rules Committee construed all of the uncommitted votes were for Obama and gave him delegates commensurate to that. And I still can’t follow their logic for why they took 4 delegates away from Clinton and gave them to Obama. The numbers are the numbers and their logic escapes me how they equate Obama with a bigger percentage of the vote than Clinton. Something with that whole process reaks very baddly. I could go on about problems and issues with this compaign season, specifically what I personally experienced at the Nevada Convention, but that’s something for another post.

Personally, I wish we could shorten up the primary season and have just ONE nationationwide Primary that would be held on, let’s say, the second Tuesday in May. Spending limits could also be established (e.g., $20M maximum/candidate) as well as establishing an allowable window of time during which candidates could advertise their credentials in the media (e.g., March 1 to 2nd Tuesday in May). Primary voting would work similarly to how it works now, you go to the poll and declare for which party you’d like to vote (Democrats get a Democratic ballot, Republicans get a Republican Ballot, Libertarians get a Libertarian ballot, etc.) The winner for each party would be the one who received the largest popular vote nationwide … period! The parties can still hold their conventions to work out all their other issues … running mates, platforms, other issues, etc. But, I’m getting really tired (as are others) of seeing our votes being disenfranchised or manipulated in some way not to count in the way it was tendered.

I doubt I’ll ever see that wish come to pass. Afterall, it would need to be enacted by legislators who are all part of this massively flawed process we use to elect our leaders.