The huge impact of $$$

By Norman Ornstein

 

The spectacular crash of the Jeb! Bush campaign — an early dropout after his super PAC raised and spent a historically high amount — has led to a chorus of voices noting that money must not mean much in politics if you can spend more than $100 million and fail to win a single primary or caucus. Most of those voices, to be sure, are opponents of any limits on campaign money, willing to seize on any evidence to bolster their position.