The Conservative burn rate is even better than I estimated

Better for the Liberals that is.  On Monday, I took a stab at estimating the cost of the attack ads and came up with $2,250,000 (decimal confusion notwithstanding.) and I must admit to be egregiously wrong.

While enjoying another of Steve V's poll deconstructions, I read a Penlan comment stating of a Stephen Taylor claim that the attack ad campaign cost 5.5 MILLION DOLLARS.  I quickly went  for my first (and hopefully last) visit to his eponymous monument to himself.  And I found out that Penlan was possibly understating the cost.

a $5-6 million Conservative pre-writ ad buy defining the Liberal leader

They spent more than their first quarter fundraising on a lead balloon.  Add this in to the high fixed costs and these guys are burning through the cash.  Think about the monthly cost for the media centre, hairdressers,  and remittances through proxies to bloggers such as Taylor himself.  Even support for lousy news aggregators drives your costs up.

One of the most difficult tasks for a manager is to prevent the development of an unsustainable cost structure.  The real world inexperience of Harper is showing.

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