WHY IN THE WORLD would anyone spend $70 mill of their own $$

[napi21]

to become a Governor???

Meg Whitman has spent $70 million of her own money inthe State PRIMARY! I guess if you have billions, the number is irrelivant, but still? Is er ego THAT BIG?

[meegbear]

1. "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." -- Henry Kissinger

QED

[phantom power]

2. Positions of power naturally attract people with big egos.

Also, being very very rich tends to inflate people's egos, since when you are very very rich, you don't often have to take 'no' for an answer.

[MrSlayer]

3. To steal it back with interest?

Politicians are not to be trusted.

[Binka]

6. Ding Ding Ding!!! n/t

[Soylent Brice]

25. spot on. n/t

[Johonny]

28. I think if she just manages to preserve the California tax status quo

for a few more years she basically ends up a winner at the bank. She'll gladly continue Arnolds assault on the commons to preserve the low taxes on the California rich.

[Statistical]

4. How else are you going to spend $5B?

I mean really. That is 5000 million. I mean you buy a dozen $10 milion dollar homes, 40-50 cars, 2 yactchs and you haven't even broken 10% of that.

Say you just spend money like it is water. Say she earns only a 10% annualized return on her net worth. That is $500 million per year. She spent like 2 months worth of income.

Take your salary and calculate 2 months worth. Would you spend that to get elected (assuming you wanted to get into politics)?

[napi21]

12. NO I wouldn't spend 3 months of MY salary! I guess you have to be talking about

DISPOSABLE INCOME HUH?

[Statistical]

14. Then you likely will never get elected govenor.

:) Don't feel bad neither will I.

Many people who have a shot at becoming governor would have no problem spending <2 months worth of their own income to ensure they do. Just happens that for her 2 months of income is a shit ton of money.

[branders seine]

5. because there is more than $70M in it due to the corruption of our system.

also ego and class identity.

[KittyWampus]

7. IMO, there's an element of addiction to it. When you've gotten to Point X, you need the rush of

getting to Point Y.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. Because she wants to be President in 2012.

And money means nothing to her.

[KamaAina]

21. Oh dear FSM, I'd never thought of that

:scared: :scared: :scared:

But doesn't it take more than a couple of billion to buy the Presidency?

[LuvNewcastle]

9. The question to me is not why, but how.

70 million dollars is excessive for an entire campaign. It's amazing that she spent that just on the primaries. What did she do -- have a commercial on every ten minutes, provide the best catering for her staff every day? It just doesn't add up to me.

[BeFree]

11. Wait a fuggin minute

We have homeless people on the streets and people spend billions on campaigns?

WTF?

[LuvNewcastle]

15. I agree. I think that people should

look for ways to spend their money in a way that benefits all of society. But that's not what my post was about. I was just gobsmacked by the amount of money she spent. If someone gave me $70 million dollars to run a campaign, I would still have a boat load of cash when the race was over. I just can't fathom spending that kind of cash, unless it's a Presidential race.

[BeFree]

18. Fair and balanced

If it was, then the 70M would put 700 homeless families in 700 houses and everybody would vote for the pol that made it happen. Eh?

[LuvNewcastle]

24. I wish it were that way.

If we could get people to vote for the candidate who does the most for the poor, life in the U.S. would become very interesting. Unfortunately, it looks like we're stuck with the Reagan Model: 1)market yourself well and 2)talk about cutting taxes.

[KamaAina]

22. It really is close to that kind of saturation coverage

especially, I am told, in SoCal, where the great majority of repuke primary voters reside.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Bloomberg spent that much and more.

His motive: unclear. But I don't think it's rooted in any sort of healthy psychological impulse.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. Is that the "Buy it Now" price?

[Statistical]

16. Nope it was $1 but she got ripped on the S&H charge ($69.99999 million)

[Sherman A1]

17. LOL

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Winterblues]

19. Would you spend one hundred dollars to win an election?

To you a hundred dollars means just as much as a hundred million to a billionaire.

[MzNov]

20. She's so slimey she will figure a way to get that money back n/t

[Octafish]

26. Bingo.

She probably wants to buy the most expensive job on the planet. As pretzeldent, she'd be in a position to really clean up the cash. Look at the Bush family and the Carlyle Group. Throw in their Republican, Independent and Democratic friends and it pretty much marries money making and policy making into one enormous bank bag of treason and warmongering.

[MzNov]

27. She's already declared her intent to cut even more social programs

than Arnold has already, if there is anything left to cut.

This woman is a huge red flag and CA voters had better wake the hell up now. We think Governator is bad, wait until this fascist gets in. I don't think she will, but hey, it's CA. :-(

[cbdo2007]

23. Governors are historical figures so she is buying her immortality.

CEO's are forgotten.