Why Sheldon Adelson Will Matter in 2016

Here's how you know the Republican Party isn't going to change all that much in the next four years: Several potential 2016 candidates met privately with Sheldon Adelson, the conservative mega-donor with the worst return on political investment ever. Adelson dropped $20 million dollars on Newt Gingrich — half of it after Gingrich was obviously toast. Then he pledged $100 million to elect Mitt Romney, who lost by a relatively large margin for modern times, and the Huffington Post reports Monday that the sum was closer to $150 million. (Spending so much to defeat President Obama is more baffling when you recall that Adelson is the single American who made the most money during the first Obama administration.) Clearly, this man doesn't have the greatest of political instincts. And yet, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell all swung by the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino a week after the election to chat about their futures with Adelson.

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"The courting of Adelson, a full four years out from 2016, demonstrates how super PAC sugar daddies have become the new must-have feature for White House wannabes," Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel reports. This is despite the fact that GOP super PAC sugar daddies struggled to actually win elections in 2012. Karl Rove's American Crossroads spent $103 million on attack ads for a 1.29 percent return on investment, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The message pushed by the mega-donor Koch brothers was "whatever the Koch brothers had for breakfast," a rival super PAC told BuzzFeed in September. As Vogel tweeted late last month, "Just received this from a GOP consultant w/ subject line 'video surfaces of Karl Rove running Crossroads.'" What is the video? It is the GIF at left.