Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Democrat Tom Vilsack, the centrist former Iowa governor, dropped out of the race for the presidency because he was unable to raise the millions of dollars necessary to compete with the better known candidates. Vilsack made it clear that “money and only money” was the reason for ending his bid.
Immediately after the announcement, the campaigns of other presidential hopefuls began seeking out Vilsack’s staff and wooing his political backers. Senator Barack Obama, for example, sought the support of prominent Vilsack supporter Gary Hirshberg, the founder of Stonyfield Yogurt, within two minutes of the announcement today. Although noncommital, an impressed Hirshberg had this to say:
Read the AP story about Vilsack at The Huffington Post
Please, Mr. Hirshberg.
Brad, is there any chance you may have some influence with Vilsack, and work together with him to get rid of the unfair election advantages of corporate and private money? You’ve done such a great job with keeping focus on vote rigging and other election fraud problems. I’d like to see you throw a bigger net out over the election reform issue, and add on the money influence problem. Now that Molly Ivins is gone, we need someone to take this up. How about it? You and Vilsack?
You won’t get a decent president (or any public official) in office until the Fairness Doctrine is put back in place.. or, better yet, the PUBLIC airwaves are made available to people looking for public office. That is, until the networks are -forced- to have some time devoted to politics (and thus, truth) since they get to make money on OUR AIRWAVES.
Basically, we’re fucked as long as money puts politicians in office, because no one will rock the boat. The networks #3 income source is POLITICAL ADS..
We’re so screwed..