How Many DUer's Are Millionaires/Potential Presidential Candidates?

[JFN1]

Land of the Free. Home of the Brave.

A land where even the "lowliest" among us can aspire to the highest office in the land.

Yup.

So imagine my "surprise" when I read the Reuters' article about how many of the candidates for President were millionaires - basically, all of them. Seriously, read the article.

So it got me to thinking: Can a "regular guy" like me ever hope to run for President? I'm not a millionaire, so I suppose not, since getting into politics these days requires, apparently, that one be wealthy - and I am decidedly not. So I guess I'm out - the promise of America is not for me, since I'm not rich. And I'll bet I could do a much better job than the guy currently holding office - no problem.

But what about my fellow DUer's? How many of you CAN run for President?

[hobbit709]

1. Not even in Confederate money

[bobbolink]

2. How many honest answers you think you'll get to this on the web tubes??

"Hey, here's one place I can be a millionaire! Whooppppeeeee!!"

[NewJeffCT]

25. Not only that

As handsome as Brad Pitt (or beautiful as Halle Berry)

[terrya]

3. I'm not even a hundred thousandaire.

Please.

[On the Road]

4. According to My Retirement Plan

I should be worth a little over a million when I retire. I am not there yet.

But being a millionaire isn't being rich anymore. Drawing down your capital by 4% per year leaves you with an annual income of $40,000 per year. Even including Social Security, that's hardly a lavish lifestyle.

[mike_c]

5. you've articulated the central truth of American politics today....

Political leadership is by and large of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. Although the democratic party is far more magnanimous about spreading the benefits of society around, its leadership is ultimately composed largely of very wealthy people whose personal interests often conflict with the party's egalitarian image.

The primary route to leadership in this country is through wealth, either personal wealth or the ability to engage the wealth of others. Although many of us hold onto hopes of populist candidates rising up through the efforts of many grassroots small donations, the truth remains that corporate and personal wealth is the backbone of government in this country.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. 1,000,000 aint what it used to be.

You really have to be much wealthier than that to consider running for president on anything other than a vanity basis. My guess is you need to have 10-100,000,000 bucks in the bank to consider running.

Now this is not exactly a new development. We've been run by rich old white men for quite some time, perhaps basically since the founding. Certainly since the civil war this nation has been the private playground of the capitalist elites.

A more interesting question is what the heck can we do to wrest control of the republic from the fat cats and make our government work for the people?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. It's virtually impossible for anyone who isn't pretty wealthy

to run for president, or maybe even senator, any more. You'd have to give up your job to campaign full-time for about two years, and hardly anyone can afford to do that. So the crap about how "rich" Democrats shouldn't run is just that -- crap. If it weren't for rich candidates we probably wouldn't have any candidates.

[dsa]

8. only after robert redford pays a million bucks to sleep with me

but he's so old, i'd probably still turn him down.

[mainer]

9. Kucinich isn't a millionaire

at least, I don't think so. Certainly not judging by his house.

[AnOhioan]

11. Dennis lives in the same Cleveland house he bought.....

years ago for around 30-40K. It is one reason I support him...he is not wealthy, nor does he think like someone who is.

[pnwmom]

18. Kucinich is running, but he has very little chance of winning the nomination.

[dsa]

24. he makes $165,200 a year as a congressman

i doubt he's hurting financially

[Jack Sprat]

10. Wholesale election reform needed.

If I am a complete lying, swindling thug and I have mega-millions to spend on my campaign and
You are basically an average wage-earning citizen, then

My TV ads, Radio ads, Newspaper ads, circular mailings, private investigators checking out your entire life for mistakes, are going to stifle any outside chance you might have had as a great citizen who earnestly wants to serve the community honestly.

[EstimatedProphet]

12. Well...maybe

It depends on how you define the question. Anyone can run for president that meets the office requirements. Every election hundreds do. But only a few are taken seriously, and every last one of them is almost always a millionaire. That issue gets into part of the problem we have with campaigning in this country, since only the millionaires are considered any real hope of winning, or perhaps 'worthy' of the office.

[DFW]

13. Bill Clinton wasn't worth a million when he ran in 1992

Obviously, he is better off now, and admits it flat out:
"I've been poor, and I've been rich and I like rich better."

[JFN1]

14. If...

money corrupts and power corrupts, what do you get when you have a bunch of millionaires seeking power?

[Uben]

15. I have a couple of million

I inherited it, but I am not wasting it on politics! It allowed me to retire at age 45, seven years ago. I think having connections to money is more important. It's more of a "who you know" thing, and how much can you raise. Biden was only showing to have $60,OOO, so you don't have to be rich to run........but it don't hurt!

[Warren Stupidity]

23. Biden is running a vanity campaign.

A serious campaign requires a lot of real money.

[LWolf]

16. Not all of them.

There are candidates not mentioned in that list of millionaires.

What's most disturbing is that they are ignored, passed over. Obviously, if they are not millionaires, they have no chance, right?

That's the same spiel we get from rank and file democrats about primary candidates. If they aren't part of the elite, "mainstream," "not one of us" crowd, they are "unelectable."

Democrats don't have to elect the millionaires to office; they choose to.

[soothsayer]

17. if you own an average house around here you're halfway there.

It's just not your father's "millionaire" anymore.

[wildhorses]

19. even if i could, i wouldn't ...

run that is:evilgrin:

[napi21]

20. Hell, I would never run either!

First you have to have your life scrutinized and every time you coughed without covering your mouth, it gets publicized! Then, if your opponents can't find anything really dirty, they make shit up! THEN...if that's not bad enough, the next Prez is going to be faced with the biggest challenges since Washington! I'm not sure there's a human being alive who could fix even most of the messes Shrub has created! I'm not only talking about Iraq and Afghanistan either. He's screwed up every Fed. agency, the entire Justice Dept., the SCOTUS, signed executive orders that nullify the Constitution....

Hell, the next Prez is going to have to spend his first hundred days reversing Shrub's executive orders!!!!

Personally, I wouldn't take that job for ANYTHING!!!!

[wildhorses]

21. you got it

not enough money in the world:patriot:

[sheerjoy]

22. Four Monopoly games....

and I still am not rich enough...

but then whothe heck wants the hassle of running for office in today's dog eat us all world?

[NewJeffCT]

26. I wouldn't consider running for state office

let alone the presidency, with a "mere" $1 million.

I mean, Ned Lamont spent something like $15-20 million of his own money and lost in a landslide to Lieberman, who spent a like amount, but most through Republic donations.

[dsa]

27. it's good for the economy

:)

[NewJeffCT]

28. It's good for the media outlets that carry the ads

and, the people behind the ads.

But, I think it's rather limited in total impact on the economy, if you're talking about just campaigning.