George Will Schools Christiane Amanpour On Campaign Spending
George Will on Sunday gave Christiane Amanpour a much-needed education on the myth of campaign overspending.
During the Roundtable segment of "This Week," with a chyron below him bemoaning "Big Money Midterms," ABC's lone conservative spelled out the issue in language so simple even a caveman could get it (video follows with transcript and commentary):
GEORGE WILL: Two points about money. First of all, in this gusher of money we may spend this year in the two year cycle $4.2 billion, something like that. That's less than half of what Proctor & Gamble is going to spend advertising its products in one year. It is approximately what Americans will spend on yogurt this year. This is a rich country and the fact that we spend so little trying to influence the selection of those who will make and administer the laws is the amazing thing. Second, surely we're learning as we repeatedly do every two years the declining marginal utility of the last political dollar. There's just so much you can do in throwing stuff on television.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: Well, explain that. Do these ads work? First of all, the issue of transparency is a big issue and a legitimate issue transparency.
WILL: It is not a big issue for the voters of this country that when losing political movements such as the Democratic Party at this moment want to talk about process. No one cares about process.
Actually, they care about process when their side is losing, George, which is really what all the fuss is about this year for no one would be talking about this issue including Amanpour if the Democrats weren't looking at such a horrible Election Day.
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Comments
Don't look for the union label
Submitted by Tomorama on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 1:24pm.
Again these liberal pussies said NOTHING when all the cash was FOR THEM, those people were excited and looking for hopenchange.
Now the tables are turned and listen to the pussies cry.
Of course the spending still favors Democraps, but why let facts get in the way of the stupidity.
$250,000,000 & $86,000,000
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 1:37pm.
AFL-CIO said they will spend $250,000,000 this election
AFSCME said they will spend $86,000,000 this election(Government employee unions)
She is probably unaware of this?
Amanpour feels obliged to . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 1:26pm.
. . . push a DNC talking point. Will should've asked her why the MSM hasn't pressed the Obama '08 campaign to explain all its anonymous donors.
I missed this today. Was that
Submitted by d1carter on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 1:45pm.
I missed this today. Was that the bobble head Maoist Anita Dunn on the program?
Wait.....
Submitted by Blonde on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 2:06pm.
I thought Joe Bite-me said it was $200 bn.
Just a few years ago, that was a earth-shattering number. A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
$200 bn, 57 states
Submitted by FastEd on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 4:54pm.
shovel ready jobs, things aren't as bad as they look, these guys don't know when to stop - and that should be the point the publicans should be shouting about - go back to '06 spending, as well as public employee numbers.
"We the People . . " Hey, congress - I'm one of the people - start listening!
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
They should start calling
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 2:29pm.
They should start calling this panel segment "Smackdown with George Will."
As Charles Krauthammer said last week, for the Democrats it's basically whining (that the money is going to Republicans).
Do ads work? No.
Submitted by KC Mulville on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 3:42pm.
Did you catch Anita Dunn's answer to the question of whether political ads work? "Of course they work. That's why they spend the money on them."
I've heard that explanation once too often. I even offered it myself in a discussion about regular commercial advertising. But over the years, I've moved farther and farther away from that conclusion.
One of the reasons I reject it now is because the defense is always: "of course it does, that's why they spend the money." That argument is a pronoun without a noun. Meaning, it's supposed to be a shorthand for a larger argument, but on inspection, there is no larger argument behind it.
I argue that, at best, ads accelerate the opinion that's already there. What causes me suspicion is that the people who actually profit from the ads (the consultants, the broadcasters, etc.) are the ones who assure us that they work. No one else does.
I trust my own experience. Ads don't persuade me. I've made up my mind about who to vote for long before the ads ever appear.
I'm open to debate on this one. If someone can offer a definitive study that proves that the millions of dollars in political ads actually produces substantial results, then I'll happily change my mind. But right now, I think this is all a giant scam.
PS: Ads are where all the money goes. If the ads are useless, who cares how much money anyone spends? Let them throw it away.
Good points KC
Submitted by Boudin on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 8:07pm.
McD's, BK and other spend billions trying to get me to eat their burgers, and I have resisted them for about 20yrs.
oops forgot*
Submitted by cajun2 on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 4:00pm.
Looks like Ms Amanpour forgot to turn on her Blackberry and missed the text messages from the White house.
~If anything
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 4:07pm.
I always found the incessant political ads of September and October annoying as hell no matter what side they came from. I've certainly never had my mind changed or influenced by anything I saw in one. I completely stopped watching any television at all a couple of years ago, so it's no longer an issue.
If $$$ were the answer...
Submitted by gopcongress on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 4:56pm.
If money were the answer, Meg Whitman, with her projected 160 million dollar campaign, would be up by 20 points for governor in California, instead of down 5-10 points. Of course, being a RINO is the bigger issue. But a real conservative would not be spending $$$ on PR ads, and instead would be promoting simple, basic Reaganisms instead of showing the gloss.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Yea well , if Cali elects Brown
Submitted by Boudin on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 8:10pm.
I want them annexed from the US
Is that something like "the doctors
Submitted by Jer on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 8:26pm.
Is that something like "the doctors were forced to reattach the patient's cancerous limb from his body"?
Jer
Ha! Nice catch there, Jer.
Submitted by ML Stovall on Mon, 10/25/2010 - 9:46am.
Ha! Nice catch there, Jer.
Two Points
Submitted by tim413 on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 6:41pm.
Here are two things re the anonymous donations to Repub causes that I have not seen discussed. First, shouldn't these commentators give the voters more credit for their ability to form rational conclusions rather than simply voting for the candidate who has the most ads? And B, does all of this "secret" money come anywhere near equalizing the playing field since the Dems get so much free "advertising" (aka news, commentary, candidate interviews, etc.) from MSNBC and the LSM?
Stop federal judges from foisting their notions of "fairness" on the States. Amend the 14th Amendment! - tim413
Will should be given a major
Submitted by celator on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 8:04pm.
Will should be given a major award for his patience in explaining how the world really works to these MSM semiliterates.
Educating MSM propagandists seems to be Will's major on-air task these days, and the zombie-voiced Amenpour better learn to shut up and pay attention to what he is trying to get through her near-impenetrable skull.
Christiane is a caricature.
Submitted by samhermanmd on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 8:21pm.
She comes off like an irrational imitation of one of Meryl Streep's excellent "accent" roles from the 1980s. Unlike Ms. Streep, Christiane has zero acting talent and tossed any credibility she had straight into the trash when she started opining on U. S. national politics. She clearly is way out of her element, believing the rest of Americans to be as gullible as the liberal denizens who live east of the Hudson.
Perhaps...
Submitted by profdlp on Sun, 10/24/2010 - 11:49pm.
...a big reason we see so much spent on political advertising when there seems to be so many questions about its value is the hope by (probably) every candidate to have that campaigns big "gotcha" moment; an ad so devastating that it turns the election almost by itself. Those are few and far between, but it's like buying a lottery ticket. You know you're wasting most, if not all, of your money - but maybe...just maybe...this time...
Hooray! Good for George.
Submitted by wiwf on Mon, 10/25/2010 - 7:57am.
Hooray! Good for George.China Wholesaler Town -
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