[Supafly345]

Its not just ANYBODY, but I believe a Sarah Palin could definitely win with proper funding. But the bloomberg thing is a perfect example, if he didn't spend 86 million dollars, he wouldn't have won, now imagine that with every election, not just the ones involving billionaires. It isn't about who can bribe the most people, or get the most favors really, but who can get the most television time, hire the most people on the street, have the biggest campaign team. Take the most recent elecion in massachssets, the republican party has been making a superficial war on obama where every win means rupert murdok can report that Obama is failing, so they poured tons of money in it while the democrats ignored it. And requiring that much money is just where you have to overcome great odds, imagine more close races... those could be bought easily. Imagine a presidential race, where they are almost always close. With 10 or 15 huge cooperations all throwing in 80 mil to whatever canidate would most likely be good for business, the competition has no chance with private contributors. You mentioned the power of public opinion, but the last presidential elections public opinion reflected the amount of private campaign contributions.

Now I know I am being over paranoid about this and it is only IFs. But the fact that it is possible now and it wasn't before, that is scary. It will takes years and years for us to feel the effects of this. BUt with the POSSIBILITY of every election being bought from here on, it could potentially create a snowball that will get too big to stop.

I do appreciate your optimism, and I pray I PRAY (to the god that doesn't exist) you are right, but this is too ominous for me to ignore.