Ethos, Pathos, & Logos for NY Times Article

Ethos:

• Austin Powers movie – “If you want it back, you will have to pay me one million dollars!”
• Brendan Doherty, political science professor at the United States Naval Academy
• Sheldon Adelson’s main political interest is Israel. He has pumped $10 million into Restore Our Future, the biggest Republican super PAC.
• Karl Rove knows what the Romney campaign needs at any given moment is in charge of and running the most important of the Republican super PACs.
• Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago and Obama’s first chief of staff is helping to raise money for a Democratic super PAC.

Pathos:

• Mitt Romney and Barack Obama could possibly spend more than $1 billion each in this year’s election.
• Candidates spend more time fundraising than actually trying to get voters.
• President Obama has held six fundraisers in a single day, twice.
• Jim Bopp Jr., a lawyer from Terre Haute, has devoted his life to freeing the country of campaign spending limits. To him, and the majority of the Supreme Court, spending restrictions are a violation of the First Amendment.
• “Most people don’t even know who their congressman is.” –Jim Bopp Jr.
• Makes unlimited spending seem democratic.
• The Supreme Court majority has said that campaign spending that is independent of the candidate cannot be corrupting.
• Ads are running with such frequency that people are tuning them out.
• Money that comes into politics has the potential to corrupt.
• We see it every day in Congress. A congressman gets on an important committee, begins to raise money from the companies that care about the committee’s issues — and, suddenly, the congressman is writing legislation the company wants.

Logos:

• 1976 election: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter were allowed to spend $35 million each on campaigning.
• Obama campaign raised $181 million in just the month of September.
• “Super PACs” (a form of campaigning allowing wealthy people to contribute amounts of more than $1000 toward campaign advertising)
• Individual contributions to a particular candidate can not exceed $5000; the amount someone can donate to a super PAC is limitless.
• More spending on campaigns, voters would be more educated on their candidates.