Mitt Romney outspent Rick Santorum better than ten to one in GOP primary states voting or caucusing today. The result: Santorum won in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakato; Romney won in Massachussetts, Virginia, Vermont, and Idaho, and won by a whisker in Ohio. And Gingrich, who also has spent much less than Romney, won big in Georgia.
Is this an example of money talks, everyone walks your way in voting booths across America? Hardly. Rather, these results show that people vote their hearts and minds, whatever media satuaration may say to the contrary.
Which I think is a very good thing, even though I would not vote for any of these candidates in any election. But a defeat for money is a good thing for democracy in America. I've been saying, ever since the outrcry against Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision which unleashed big spending and corporate financing of campaigns, that it's no big deal. Because, as John Milton and Thomas Jefferson saw, as long as there's some truth in the field, no amount of falsity - in today's terms, false advertising - can drown it out.
Of course, people will differ on what they perceive to be truth. I think the greater truth resides with the policies of Barack Obama as what America most needs. But what we certainly don't need is a Presidential election determined by money, and Romney's weak showing decisively says that's unlikely to happen.
Is this an example of money talks, everyone walks your way in voting booths across America? Hardly. Rather, these results show that people vote their hearts and minds, whatever media satuaration may say to the contrary.
Which I think is a very good thing, even though I would not vote for any of these candidates in any election. But a defeat for money is a good thing for democracy in America. I've been saying, ever since the outrcry against Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision which unleashed big spending and corporate financing of campaigns, that it's no big deal. Because, as John Milton and Thomas Jefferson saw, as long as there's some truth in the field, no amount of falsity - in today's terms, false advertising - can drown it out.
Of course, people will differ on what they perceive to be truth. I think the greater truth resides with the policies of Barack Obama as what America most needs. But what we certainly don't need is a Presidential election determined by money, and Romney's weak showing decisively says that's unlikely to happen.
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