This is how it ends, or starts to end, or something.

[Bronzeage]

Rick Perry shuts down his South Carolina campaign

With a field if 15 (+or-) candidates, sooner or later, someone is going to run out of money and face reality. Even the most intense egomaniac will balk at spending his own money to run a losing campaign. There are worse things than dropping out of a campaign and one of them is being poor and indebt.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

South Carolina is the Evangelical primary. Perry doesn't qualify with a Huckabee in the running. So it could be pragmatism, or Perry realizes he doesn't have a shot in heck of winning.

 

[Derec]

South Carolina is the Evangelical primary. Perry doesn't qualify with a Huckabee in the running. So it could be pragmatism, or Perry realizes he doesn't have a shot in heck of winning.

McCain won SC in 2008 because the Evangelical vote was split between Huckabee and Thompson. In a big field and with "first past the post" anything can happen.
But I do think Perry is doomed. With still months to go until the first primary and loyalties (and wallets) of donors spread among this many candidates people on the bottom will find it increasingly difficult to raise funds until the field is winnowed.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

So, he's going to stop paying his workers and yet they get to keep working for him while at the same time, due to the setup of financing laws, he has plenty of money himself.

I think that nicely sums up Rick Perry's vision of America.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Yep. Republicans LOVE volunteers.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, in America, you have to quit running for President 15 months before the election because you don't have enough cash to go the gauntlet. Thank you Citizens United.

 

[Bronzeage]

So, he's going to stop paying his workers and yet they get to keep working for him while at the same time, due to the setup of financing laws, he has plenty of money himself.

I think that nicely sums up Rick Perry's vision of America.

You get what you pay for.

A "volunteer staff" means the phones will be answered and when a reporter needs a statement, somebody will talk. No campaign material printing, no advertising, no polling, no hope.

 

[George S]

You get what you pay for. .

In a Dictatorship there is the illusion of democracy: Each person votes, but there is but one name on the ballot.
In the United States there is the illusion of democracy: Each person votes, but there are but two real choices.

Campaign financing tells the tale. Those two are the two who were best funded. And, as always, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

So, he's going to stop paying his workers and yet they get to keep working for him while at the same time, due to the setup of financing laws, he has plenty of money himself.

I think that nicely sums up Rick Perry's vision of America.

You get what you pay for.

A "volunteer staff" means the phones will be answered and when a reporter needs a statement, somebody will talk. No campaign material printing, no advertising, no polling, no hope.

As oppsed to ... all the hope Perry had before this? The man's a joke on the national political scene and he never had a chance. If he crawls back to Niggerhead Ranch three days from now or three months from now, it's not altogether relevant.

 

[Bronzeage]

You get what you pay for.

A "volunteer staff" means the phones will be answered and when a reporter needs a statement, somebody will talk. No campaign material printing, no advertising, no polling, no hope.

As oppsed to ... all the hope Perry had before this? The man's a joke on the national political scene and he never had a chance. If he crawls back to Niggerhead Ranch three days from now or three months from now, it's not altogether relevant.

Perry is not the only national joke on the current slate.

The relevance is that each drop out means a little more for each of the remaining candidates. Of those, about half are just place holders. They'll keep their hat in the ring by husbanding resources for as long as possible. This means skipping over states where there is little support and no volunteer base at all. This bunch may go all the way to the convention, but their goal is not the nomination, but to have some power and influence in the party.

 

[dismal]

So, in America, you have to quit running for President 15 months before the election because you don't have enough cash to go the gauntlet. Thank you Citizens United.

Why doesn't he just give a few $250,000 speeches to investment bankers?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Perry is not the only national joke on the current slate.

The relevance is that each drop out means a little more for each of the remaining candidates. Of those, about half are just place holders. They'll keep their hat in the ring by husbanding resources for as long as possible. This means skipping over states where there is little support and no volunteer base at all. This bunch may go all the way to the convention, but their goal is not the nomination, but to have some power and influence in the party.

I don't know if that logic holds up when there's this many candidates. Sure, if you're the seventh guy in and you can pull enough voters away from the leaders to show up in the polls then that indicates that you're at least a somewhat serious player and it's in everyone's interest to make sure that you get an invite to all the right parties if only to make sure that they don't offend the people who support you because they might make a difference in a close race. However, if you're the fourteeth guy in and your level of support is within the margin of error of zero then there's not a lot of cache in saying that you're Presidential candidate and no particular benefit to the powers-that-be to give a shit about you as opposed to not giving a shit about you.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, in America, you have to quit running for President 15 months before the election because you don't have enough cash to go the gauntlet. Thank you Citizens United.

Why doesn't he just give a few $250,000 speeches to investment bankers?

$750k? You think that is enough to run?

Thank you Citizens United.

- - - Updated - - -

Perry is not the only national joke on the current slate.

The relevance is that each drop out means a little more for each of the remaining candidates. Of those, about half are just place holders. They'll keep their hat in the ring by husbanding resources for as long as possible. This means skipping over states where there is little support and no volunteer base at all. This bunch may go all the way to the convention, but their goal is not the nomination, but to have some power and influence in the party.

I don't know if that logic holds up when there's this many candidates. Sure, if you're the seventh guy in and you can pull enough voters away from the leaders to show up in the polls then that indicates that you're at least a somewhat serious player and it's in everyone's interest to make sure that you get an invite to all the right parties if only to make sure that they don't offend the people who support you because they might make a difference in a close race. However, if you're the fourteeth guy in and your level of support is within the margin of error of zero then there's not a lot of cache in saying that you're Presidential candidate and no particular benefit to the powers-that-be to give a shit about you as opposed to not giving a shit about you.

Santorum was margin of error for most of '12, but then he blossomed into a beautiful contender candidate.

 

[dismal]

Why doesn't he just give a few $250,000 speeches to investment bankers?

$750k? You think that is enough to run?

Thank you Citizens United.

Works for Hillary.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

$750k? You think that is enough to run?

Thank you Citizens United.

Works for Hillary.

Oh, your response was one of those... "gotcha remarks", but I've never been a big Hillary Clinton supporter, nor do I think being able to raise huge amounts is a good thing for democracy, and $750k isn't what is getting her across the finish line. She'll end up raising hundreds of millions of dollars. It is absurd that Democracy has come to this in our country.

I suppose the gotcha remark is a bit odd seeing that I wasn't being critical of Perry and rather critical of the system that requires him to give up 15+ months from the election. Thanks Citizens United!

 

[dismal]

Works for Hillary.

Oh, your response was one of those... "gotcha remarks", but I've never been a big Hillary Clinton supporter, nor do I think being able to raise huge amounts is a good thing for democracy, and $750k isn't what is getting her across the finish line. She'll end up raising hundreds of millions of dollars. It is absurd that Democracy has come to this in our country.

Thanks Citizens United!

Oddly I seem to recall you being the biggest Hillary supporter here back in 2008. One of the last to bolt to the Obama band wagon.

But in any case the whole argument against Citizen's United is that it makes gobs of money available from investment banks et al. Aside from the fact that Hillary seems to have no problem tapping into said gobs of money from investment banks, the fact that Rick Perry can't get enough money to pay a few kids in SC hardly seems consistent with the critique.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Oh, your response was one of those... "gotcha remarks", but I've never been a big Hillary Clinton supporter, nor do I think being able to raise huge amounts is a good thing for democracy, and $750k isn't what is getting her across the finish line. She'll end up raising hundreds of millions of dollars. It is absurd that Democracy has come to this in our country.

Thanks Citizens United!

Oddly I seem to recall you being the biggest Hillary supporter here back in 2008. One of the last to bolt to the Obama band wagon.

I never "bolted" to Obama, I was never a big Clinton supporter. Feel free to look at the posting history.

But in any case the whole argument against Citizen's United is that it makes gobs of money available from investment banks et al. Aside from the fact that Hillary seems to have no problem tapping into said gobs of money from investment banks, the fact that Rick Perry can't get enough money to pay a few kids in SC hardly seems consistent with the critique.

The fact would be that Rick Perry needs access to such gobs of money in the first place to run. That is the complaint.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Perry is not the only national joke on the current slate.

The relevance is that each drop out means a little more for each of the remaining candidates. Of those, about half are just place holders. They'll keep their hat in the ring by husbanding resources for as long as possible. This means skipping over states where there is little support and no volunteer base at all. This bunch may go all the way to the convention, but their goal is not the nomination, but to have some power and influence in the party.

I don't know if that logic holds up when there's this many candidates. Sure, if you're the seventh guy in and you can pull enough voters away from the leaders to show up in the polls then that indicates that you're at least a somewhat serious player and it's in everyone's interest to make sure that you get an invite to all the right parties if only to make sure that they don't offend the people who support you because they might make a difference in a close race. However, if you're the fourteeth guy in and your level of support is within the margin of error of zero then there's not a lot of cache in saying that you're Presidential candidate and no particular benefit to the powers-that-be to give a shit about you as opposed to not giving a shit about you.

Santorum was margin of error for most of '12, but then he blossomed into a beautiful contender candidate.

OK, fair point. I'd forgotten about the last time when everyone and their dog went from irrelevant to leading for a week until the voters all realized there'd actually been a reason that they were irrelevant and then dumped them and pulled the next random name out of the hat. I still think they're far beyond the point of diminishing returns this time around, however, and there's not much of a career benefit for being one of the also-rans in this field.

Sure, there's a decent chance that one of Trump's kids will get him declared mentally incompetent and thrown into a padded room within the next couple of months in order to protect the inheritence and the second, third, fourth and fifth place guys are dull as shit (I don't exactly know who's in what place, but the point holds regardless of the ordering) but then you're still only one of a dozen when the process of random selection yanks out a new frontrunner. Being part of this field just doesn't seem to be the path to influence that it normally would.

 

[dismal]

But in any case the whole argument against Citizen's United is that it makes gobs of money available from investment banks et al. Aside from the fact that Hillary seems to have no problem tapping into said gobs of money from investment banks, the fact that Rick Perry can't get enough money to pay a few kids in SC hardly seems consistent with the critique.

The fact would be that Rick Perry needs access to such gobs of money in the first place to run. That is the complaint.

You seem to be lost in your own separate discussion. The article in the OP is about Perry not having enough money to pay campaign staff. Something a few speeches to investment bankers could solve, I imagine.

 

[dismal]

See Jimmy, this is the sort of thing Perry should do:

Group backing Clinton gets $1M from untraceable donors

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton told a cheering crowd at her largest rally so far that "the endless flow of secret, unaccountable money" must be stopped. Two weeks later, the main super PAC backing her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination accepted a $1 million contribution that cannot be traced.

http://news.yahoo.com/group-backing...-1m-anonymous-donors-192934568--election.html