The Hands That Feed Them

[groovedaddy]

Here’s something to remember while you watch the presidential conventions. The lush weeklong extravaganzas — staged in the name of ordinary Americans — will be largely paid for by private, unlimited donations from corporations, deep-pocketed donors and (a few) unions that shop 24/7 for privileged government access.

How much cash are we talking about? More than $112 million is expected from private donors — by far the lion’s share of the cost of the two conventions.

So much for changing the way Washington works. The candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, have been presenting themselves as dedicated reformers of the money-ridden political process — just not for the weeks of freebie conventioneering.

The celebrations in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul will be monuments to the way Washington works: crassly, with real politics galvanized by money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/opinion/21thu2.html?th&emc=th