Wasting Money on What?

Alright, now the election is over and smoke has cleared, I ask myself "How much money did we spend and for what?"

The WSJ reports that this election for the White House (not including congress and senate) cost "about $1.6 billion; double the presidential race four years ago." 1.6 BILLION!!

Was the difference between Obama and McCain really worth that much money. If you look at McCain's previous record one would say that the two of them believed in most of the same things. The only area they differed was how to achieve these things. Now, don't get me wrong there are some fundamental differences to them but what would have happened if they spent that money somewhere else.

For instance:

140 million could feed 4 million people in Zimbabwe for a month. 1.6 Billion could probably feed them well for a year.

We could have used that to save 16,000 people's homes from being forclosed.

We could have even used that to send rabies vacinations to poor countries and saved 50,000 lives. (yes, somehow people still die from rabies -- odd huh).

My point it, the money spent on an election is a waste. I realize there is no true way to stop the spending, even finance reform won't curb the spending by private parties, but someday one candidate should say "Instead of givnig me the money to buy ads, I am going to use it for something good" and then that person will get my vote.

Oh yeah, the bailout is a joke too.