Did President Trump prove our system is so corrupt you can buy the presidency or any other position?

…as answered on Quora….

No. The opposite, in fact.

He did not outspend Hillary Clinton. Not by a long shot. That someone might think so is likely the result of widespread misunderstanding of how politics works in America.

Here is Bloomberg’s factual take:

He didn’t win the money race, but Donald Trump will be the next president of the U.S. In the primaries and general election, he defied conventional wisdom, besting better financed candidates by dominating the air waves for free. Trump also put to use his own cash, as well as the assets and infrastructure of his businesses, in unprecedented fashion. He donated $66 million of his own money, flew across the country in his private jet, and used his resorts to stage campaign events. At the same time, the billionaire was able to draw about $280 million from small donors giving $200 or less. Super-PACs, which can take contributions unlimited in size, were similarly skewed toward his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Ultimately, Trump won the presidency despite having raised less than any major party presidential nominee since John McCain in 2008, the last to accept federal funds to pay for his general election contest.

Clinton and her super-PACs raised a total of $1.2 billion, less than President Barack Obama raised in 2012. Her sophisticated fundraising operation included a small army of wealthy donors who wrote seven-figure checks, hundreds of bundlers who raised $100,000 or more from their own networks, and a small-dollar donor operation modeled on the one used by Obama in 2012. She spent heavily on television advertising and her get-out-the-vote operation, but in the end, her fundraising edge wasn’t enough to overcome Trump’s ability to dominate headlines and the airwaves.

Trump out-maneuvered Clinton.

Trump has charisma, believe it or not, and a keen sense of self-promotion; he is a genius at branding and marketing, which carried over into the political realm. Hillary, on the other hand, has all the charm of a hitman disguised as a cackling circus automaton, and none of the political wisdom of her ex-president husband.

Trump is the Middle American common man’s candidate. Hillary Clinton was perceived as the feckless and corrupt candidate of the coastal elites. He did not buy the election. She blew it.

twv