Billion Dollar Men

Bob Giusti

The Chief Executive of this nation, POTUS, as some know it, is an exclusive club with only 44 presidencies to date.And really its only 43 men because Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th president (non-consecutive terms).
They (so far) have been all men, and up until number 44 they were all Caucasian. Some were from families of wealth and privilege while one of the most beloved (Lincoln) came from the humblest of beginnings.

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It was never an easy task to get elected without having powerful political allies forged ahead of what were (once) meaningful conventions. From the very beginning The Electoral College confirmed the actual winner until Bush 43 narrowly snatched the prize from Al Gore in what amounted to a split Supreme Court decision.So this means the popular majority is not the guaranteed result.

None of this establishing political base is a sure thing either if you can't muster campaign funding. Whose going to pay for the expensive polling that's needed just to get through the straw poll season? 
To put it into perspective is to take a look at the spending numbers of the 2012 Campaign between incumbent Barrack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Both spent close to 1 billion dollars; with Obama actually raising just over that amount(1,072.6 million) to Romney's 992.5 mil. In contrast Romney went for broke and spent just about all of his funds ($992m) while the sitting Prez spent only 986 million or about $17.14 a vote if your keeping track of these things. 
Actually breaking it down like that puts you in the neighborhood of Miley Cyrus's record sales for the past year. Seems kind of petty.
Still, it comes down to the fact that two candidates will surely both be spending that cool billion by election 2016 for the chance to be number 45 in the most exclusive and powerful club. The question comes from figuring out whose paying for who, and what if anything is not for sale? 
Recently former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has been publicly pondering (on his current JFK Conspiracy book tour). a way to run successfully as a private funded campaign clear of PAC super money. His plan? Choose Howard Stern as his VP and broadcast to Stern's devoted satellite millions without FCC restrictions. Hey, they only need 33% to win.