I saw yet another ad where they discussed campaign fundraising in the US as though whoever raises the most money automatically wins. Can someone explain to me why this is so important? I mean, I do realize that election campaigns are expensive. I do realize that you need money for all the travelling around that is involved. But these articles were talking about fundraising as though the voters automatically vote for whoever raises the most money. This doesn't make much sense to me. If a reasonable campaign can be run for $10 million, could $100 million really earn more votes? I always thought the candidates had plenty of forums to air their platforms that are of little to no cost to the candidate - websites, televised debates, media interviews, etc. What could an extra $100 million possibly buy that would make world media declare that this person is obviously going to win BECAUSE he has an extra $100 million? Bribes?