I like to follow U.S. politics and history and as you can probably surmise, there are few presidents that were not born into money or at least powerful families. A few are/were self-made millionaires. I heard an American commentator on the radio the other day talking about the Republican Party presidential primary in Florida. To become the presidential candidate, one must win a required number of so-called primaries which are like mini elections held in various states at various times throughout the run-up to the election. This is not news, but what was of interest to me was the coverage of each candidate in Florida by paid television/radio advertising. The number of spots run by Newt Gingrich was 200 during this Florida campaign; the number run by Mitt Romney was approximately 13,000 or 65 times more than his closest rival. Apparently, the other candidates ran no ads whatsoever. That's interesting when you consider that Mitt Romney is worth well over 100 million dollars and handily won the state of Florida. You can do your own math and imagine what his team spent on 13,000 media spots in one state alone. As I commented previously on Saveland, it becomes a question of who can stay in the race as a contender based on their financial resources. Fortunately, the political stakes in Canada seem to turn less on money.

I always liked Carter. He seemed down to earth. He was not born into money

jimmy carter was a great president, the US started to decline when they put reagan in.

Sorry Fluffy, but Jimmy Carter and his family owned a huge peanut plantation that supplied peanuts to a lot companies and consumers not only in the states, but across the world. So he, and his family,  had quite abit of money to fund his political dreams.

Politics in the U.S. does come down to money. Whoever has the most can spread his/her face everywhere and get their message out. You need deep pockets, and lots of friends with deep pockets as well.

Thanks for sharing your comments. I am not a fan of any of the presidential "wannabes" but I think the message is clear that you need deep pockets and similar friends as rosequeen says.