American Idol starts a new season, and so do the politicians.

I don’t usually watch American Idol whenever it’s on, but I do like the first couple of shows each season. Getting a glimpse of people who think they are great singers getting a dose of reality is both painful and entertaining. It’s appropriate that the pre-election political season is also starting. It seems that most of the Congress has filed papers to start exploratory committees. The only thing that both events have in common is money.

Fox, of course, is a very successful company. They sell commercials to run during the American Idols shows, and they make a ton of money delivering millions of viewers to the advertisers. With the politicians though the money is a little different. They started the committees to have a license to beg. It’s estimated that it will cost the winning candidate almost $100 million to win. Right now they only want $10 or $20 million to figure out what their chances are. Any money that they don’t spend they use for something else later on.

We, the tax payers, pay them to represent us. We also cover all their expenses and give them an unbelievable retirement package, medical insurance and a lot more. When they are out pre-campaigning, they aren’t doing their jobs. It’s sort of fun watching rather unknowns like Mr. Obama get their chance in front of the microphone. It’s interesting to speculate what made these people think they can get most people’s vote. Then I begin to wonder. Fox takes money for real value in return, what are all these politicians giving for the money?

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