Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Dean.com Bust The top story on The New York Times site right this minute is the shakeup in Howard Dean's campaign: Joe Trippi out and a Gore lieutenant in. But the news I found most interesting was the mention of Dean's finances: He raised $41 million through Dec. 31 (the excellent OpenSecrets.org is worth checking, though it currently posts reports only through Oct. 15, 2003) and has spent it all; the Times says he has $4 million or $5 million on hand, the cash raised since the first of the year; the Washington Post reports the cash situation prompted the campaign to skip further TV advertising in next week's primary states.  So where did that mountain of Internet money go? The campaign reportedly spent $9 million-plus on TV advertising so far. What about the other $32 million? What combination of plane leases, candidate and staff housing, salaries, broadband access, toner and Dunkin' Donuts runs adds up to that? I'd love to see the books, out of sheer curiosity.  Most likely, all the campaigns spend money fast, since the name of the game is gettng results now; and this isn't the first time a promising candidate has burned a big bank balance with little to show for it. But to read that most of the capital is used up already and that the campaign will survive only with another big round of donations carries a whiff of the worst of the dot-com bust: We've got such a hot business plan/candidate, we need a big hit of venture capital/contributions right now. It'll be awhile before we see results, but the upside could be huge. And then you wind up with office suites full of nice computers and furniture to sell for 20 cents on the dollar. Not that that's where Dean & Co. is headed, necessarily. You can't avoid the feeling, though, that investors just got word their stock is sick.  10:41:00 PM    comment []

Why Johnny Can't Sell (By way of my brother John): Because, The New York Times says, Johnny (and Janey) can't spell: "When Holly Marshall wanted to sell a pair of dangling earrings, a popular style these days, she listed them on eBay once, and got no takers. She tried a second time, and still no interest. "Was it the price? The fuzzy picture? Maybe the description: a beautiful pair of chandaleer earrings. ..."  9:48:41 PM    comment []

Bush and Mars and Iraq and trust A scathing Talk of the Town piece on Bush's State of the Union speech in this week's New Yorker:  "... Bush’s only serious (that is, expensive) domestic program, as always, is yet another mammoth tax entitlement for the rich and the superrich. The new plan would make permanent his earlier tax cuts, which, in a gimmick designed to make future deficits look less terrifying, were scheduled to expire in 2010. This new round of relief for the unneedy, like the previous three, is to be financed (though the President didn’t mention this part) by confiscating the Social Security “trust fund,” curtailing federal activities that benefit society at large, and borrowing more trillions—taking out a fourth mortgage on the future, payable to foreign creditors. ..." 9:42:30 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Brekke.