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Vote with Dollar
// US presidential candidates measured their sponsors against each other
US presidential candidates’ campaign headquarters published new data on fundraising for the 2008 election campaign. Summarizing the third quarter, Democrats are significantly ahead of Republicans, and Hillary Clinton is the favorite in the race. Candidates compensate the lack of funds by making scandalous statements able to attract voters. Thus, Republican John McCain, who suffers greatest financial difficulties, promised to abolish the U.N. and to expel Russia from the G8 if he wins the presidential election.
Dollars, Ratings, Percents
US presidential candidates’ campaign headquarters on Monday submitted their reports on fundraising in the third quarter of 2007 to the Federal Election Commission. These reports reflect the general patterns of party fundraising in previous quarters. Just like in the year’s first semester, Democratic candidates are ahead of Republicans. New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic camp’s unofficial leader, raised $35 million in the third quarter, while Republicans’ number one, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, received thrice less, $11.6 million.
The third quarter reports have also confirmed that the two main candidates for the right to represent the Democratic Party at the 2008 election, -- Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, -- have nearly equal financial opportunities. The fundraiser race went with varying success throughout 2007. Clinton led with $26 million in the first quarter, and Obama was right behind her with $25 million. In the second quarter, however, Obama had a significant uprise and bypassed his rival: he raised $33 million, while Clinton gathered $27 million. Clinton regained her positions with $35 million in the third quarter, and Obama is hot on her tail again, with $ 32 million.
Latest public opinion polls prove Clinton’s strengthening as well. Thus, Clinton for the first time took the lead in the key-important state of Iowa last week, where the presidential primaries are to begin in early January 2008. Despite her stable leadership in the nationwide polls, Clinton had two Democratic rivals in Iowa until recently: Barack Obama and John Edwards. However, the most recent poll surveyed 399 voters, and 29 percent are for Clinton, while 26 percent – for Obama. A week earlier, Obama was the leader in Iowa (28 percent), while Clinton was the second (24 percent).
Clinton Goes On
Observers believe that Clinton’s new uprise in the tough competition against Obama is largely due to her husband and former US president Bill Clinton’s actively joining her campaign. Apparently, Hillary Clinton’s spin doctors concluded that it is high time to fully use the former president’s resource, in the height of the competition against the rising star of US politics – Afro-American Senator Barack Obama. During Bill Clinton’s recent visit to the Faroe Islands, where he took part in an important business forum, the ex-president “threw his weight” into the campaign scale, openly declaring support for his wife. Answering the question whether America is ready for its first female president, Bill Clinton said: “I think it is. Hillary is the best option, and I believe the Americans are ready for it.”
“Former president Bill Clinton has emerged as a clear asset in his wife’s campaign for the White House,” said The Washington Post. According to a new public opinion poll carried out by the newspaper, 75 percent of Americans highly rated Bill Clinton’s presidency, and said they “would not regard the election of Sen. Hillary Clinton as simply the resumption of her husband’s presidency”. “Instead, two-thirds said she would take her presidency in a different direction,” the newspaper reported.
Forced to run against two Clintons at once, Senator Obama tried to compensate the rival’s advantage in the ‘financial-political resource’ by sharp statements that despite the funds the Clintons would raise and their tremendous influence, they have no right to claim the ‘Clintonism Era’ to be continued. By the way, Obama made a whole number of disapproving statements about Hillary Clinton and ‘Clintonism’ in recent weeks. Obama juxtaposed his “new-type policy” to them, which has 3 elements in its basis: healthcare system reform, ending the war in Iraq, and decreasing the US economy’s dependence on oil. Speaking to students in Madison, WI on Monday, Obama said the old politics built upon the “above the fray” approach and “taking cue of the public opinion” has completely outlived itself. Although Obama refrained from mentioning the ex-president by name, the epithets he used openly referred the audience to the 8 years of Clinton’s presidency. (Clinton preferred finding compromises in every issue, and his opponents consequently accused him of conformism and populism).
Done with Bill Clinton, Obama moved on to criticizing Hillary Clinton, reminding that she had once supported the US military operation in Iraq, while Obama took a non-compromise stand, just like most Americans, on the most important current issue.
What to Do about Russia
Number two in the Democratic race Barack Obama was not the only candidate who tried to juxtapose the “power of values” and the “originality of ideas” to rivals’ administrative and financial advantage. Republican Senator John McCain (second in the Republican race after Rudolph Giuliani, according to the latest polls) was even more outstanding. The fundraising and fund-spending reports showed that McCain’s campaign financial affairs are not going well. As of the third quarter results, McCain has $1.6 million for primaries expenditures, but he already owes $1.7 million which he spent on his campaign. The senator has a reserve of $1.8 million, but the problem is that he can use the money only if he wins the primaries.
To show he was ‘underestimated’, McCain published a program article in the Foreign Affairs’ last issue. The article was officially distributed by the senator’s campaign headquarters. Its most ‘revolutionary’ part is the one which concerns the U.S.-Russia relations. “We need a new Western approach to this revanchist Russia,” McCain proclaimed. “Today, we see in Russia diminishing political freedoms, a leadership dominated by a clique of former intelligence officers, efforts to bully democratic neighbors, such as Georgia, and attempts to manipulate Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas,” the article reads. To put pressure on Moscow, McCain suggested fully using the G8 and NATO in the future. Moreover, the senator suggested that “the G-8 […] becomes again a club of leading market democracies”. “It should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia,” McCain said.
It was not just Moscow that suffered in the article, but also the U.N.—if McCain becomes president, he will push for creating a new international organization, the League of Democracies, as an alternative.
By the way, the Foreign Affairs’ last issue was published almost at the same time with Hillary Clinton’s statements on Russia last week. Yet, Clinton was more careful, while speaking to the Boston Globe’s editorial board. She promised that her approach to the relations with Moscow will be determined primarily by Russia’s foreign policy, and not its domestic affairs. “I’m interested in what Russia does outside its borders first. I don’t think I can, as the president of the United States, wave my hand and tell the Russian people they should have a different government,” Clinton said. The senator added she hopes for Russia’s help in settling the Iran nuclear program crisis and in the Middle East peace process.
Thus, the last statements of the US presidential Democratic and Republican candidates suddenly brought back the Russian theme into the US presidential race. However, it is obvious these statements were largely dictated by the campaign competition. So, it is early yet to judge what the Russian policy of the next US president will be like.
Sergei Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 17, 2007
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