‘Money can’t guarantee victory,” former US president Barack Obama wrote in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “but without money, and the television ads that consume all the money, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose.”
Presidential races all over the world have become very expensive. Understandably, the prize is big, because whoever wins gets to be in the pound seats, literally. The size of the US economy is $21 trillion (R341 trillion) a year and gives the people who are close to the president enormous influence around the world. It is a gamble worth taking for most people.
But, as Obama said, the investment does not guarantee success. Hillary Clinton spent almost double what Donald Trump spent in the 2016 presidential race, but she still lost. She burnt $768…
