I wonder how Sheldon Adelson feels this morning. He spent $10 million to buy Florida for Newt Gingrich, and ... bad investment ...
Over the last several weeks, Adelson and his wife gave $10 million to Newt Gingrich as an ‘investment’ (I wonder what the return-on-investment was supposed to be!). Essentially they gave money in order to buy Florida for the Gingrich campaign.
Of course, with the help of the Supreme Court and the US Election laws, this is totally legal. I have issues with the court decisions, but it is the law of the land.
So if you were Adelson, and your favorite horse lost Florida by 14 points last night, what’s your next move? Do you try and buy another state for Gingrich? Do you take the rest of your money and back someone else?
How do you feel when you blow $10 million and end up with bupkis?
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8 Answers
His net worth is reported as $21.5 billion.
He can write 2,000 more $10 million checks and still have $1.5 billion remaining for retirement.
If he wants Gingrich to remain competitive he can do it. A shocking number of people get their “facts” from campaign commercials, and he can buy a huge amount of air time.
Hopefully, you hedged your bets with some money for other candidates.
If he has that much money, then I doubt he’s the kind of gambler who will pour good money after bad. On the other hand, it’s a national campaign, so he’s probably in it for the long haul. He’s probably good for another 20–30 mill.
Also, you don’t lose just because you don’t win the nomination. Gingrich’s showing gives him a lot of street cred. He’ll have influence in a lot places even if he loses. An investment like Adelson’s pays off, win or lose, unless Gingrich totally flakes after the campaign is over. Gingrich is also probably running for 2016, as well as 2012. These people don’t think short term, and Gingrich has a history of thinking long term and planning long term and worse, being successful at it.
@wundayatta , good answer.
I sort of agree in principle with you, but I don’t think that Newt has done himself any favors with his erratic and somewhat vituperative and uncontrolled speechifying. For example, the “Mars colony by 2020”, although it is a cool idea, is so out of touch with anything that anyone takes seriously in 2011.
And the whole thing about getting government approval for IVF – that’s not a government role, and how Newt can say that in the face of the Tea party is beyond me.
So he’s a loose cannon, and has proved it in 2012. I don’t think this bodes well for him in 2016.
If Newt hasn’t quit by now, he’ll be in it to the bitter end. Mr. Adelson will spend a lot more yet to get his war with Iran.
@elbanditoroso Look. I hate the guy’s positions. I think his policies are ludicrous and damaging. But I suspect that these policies are some of what make Mr. Adelson happy to throw in $10 mill.
There’s also more to the Mars story than the headline suggests. It probably has something to do with technology development, or maybe places to hide black technology development. It’s more than Newt being a fan of “Green Mars” (Kim Stanley Robinson).
In American politics they count dollars rather than votes which is not the way it is meant to be.
I don’t think Adelson is feeling any pain for that “loss.” He feels how everyone else contributing to a candidate feels, bound by duty and happy with the loss, b/c alas, all contributors that end up donating to anyone but the winning candidate took a “loss.”
I voted for Ron Paul and I donated to his campaign. He got 7% in Florida, and while I think that sucks, it didn’t make me rethink my donation one bit. You give money to the person you believe in and give your vote, and that’s all you can control.
Even if RP doesn’t get the nomination, I’m not going to regret a donation because of it. I felt a call to donate so I did.
I’m sure a multibillionaire thinks even less of it!
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