Money.
That’s it.
It’s also the real reason President Biden was forced to drop out of the presidential race after the previous debate: his funding dried up. That’s it.
The powers behind the hundreds of millions maybe even billion plus of dollars it takes to run a presidential campaign these days made it known they weren’t paying for Biden anymore, so Democrats had to replace him if they wanted to get any more money.
After his poor debate performance, Trump’s just one step away from that. Another debate is just too much of a risk. Unless his numbers drop off so far so fast in the next couple weeks that his funding gets threatened anyway. But then why would Vice President Harris debate him at that point?
Watch the money. Don’t think it’s about anything else. Because it’s not. It’s both what’ll keep Trump in it, (if he can stay in it after his disaster debate), and what’ll keep the momentum going for Harris (if she can keep it going in the face of forceful and so far somewhat fruitful attempts to dam it up by the Trump campaign), between now and election day.
Which is funny, because traditional things like TV, newspaper, billboard and even streaming ads — probably count for less than they ever did (although they cost more.) So why do campaign donations and parallel PAC contributions remain the be all and end all?
It’s kind of like what happened to the music business when the internet came along. Artists used to tour to support releases. But it was the albums or CDs or whatever that made them the money, not the tours. Nowadays tours are where most of the money comes from. Used to be personal appearances for politicians supported the messaging in their ads. But no way they could be everywhere they needed to be all at once. Now they have to be. Because everything that’s not a personal appearance (except perhaps for yard signs because they’re an indicator of a definite vote, but I digress), means nothing. And exhaustive criss-crossing of swing states — with all the follow-up and canvassing that goes along with it — takes more money than putting up a sign along a roadside somewhere. Interesting in these days where so much is remote, that a personal touch in the political arena counts for everything. Or so much more than it used to. Politicians do have to be rock stars. In every sense.
Also, there’s a lot more lawyers that are going to need to get paid, due to the incrementally increasing litigiousness around voting.
Influencers too, who usually also aren’t worth the money (especially if they don’t have true passion which most don’t,) but are by and large getting paid. (Some on the right, we recently found out, by Russia.) Unless you’re a star in your own right and don’t need the money. But even then you risk losing some of your own fans and financial support. Unless of course you are beyond all that.
And there’s a lot more that needs to be invested in promoting or pushing back against rumor and innuendo, which can spread like wildfire and thus needs ready cash reserves to put those wildfires out before they really wreak havoc.