Is charity good politics?

I was talking to David Cousino the other day. He's the less publicized Republican candidate for mayor of Macon.

And "less publicized Republican" is saying something in a Macon city election. For the record, the general-wisdom front runner in that race is Arlan Gibson.

Any way, Cousino says he doesn't want to raise money to for his campaign. In the past it's taken more than $100,000 to run a successful citywide campaign in this town, and I imagine the winner will spend a good bit more than that this year.

"That big money should be going into the city," he said. "Taking care of the poor, taking care of the sick, taking care of the homeless. It should be used to recruit new business."

His plan instead? "The word of mouth can spread faster than any amount of money that's out there."

I don't think that's true, but I'd like it to be.

I told him that reminds me of an idea I had a few years back. The national presidential nominating conventions are little more than television events these days. We already know who the nominee is, and you can't really say that the candidates won't get enough TV time without a convention.

So instead of spending tens of millions on a p.r. event, one of the big parties should just make an announcement:

"This year, instead of holding a convention, we the will be donating the cost of holding a convention to (insert charity). We will also make a donation toward economic development in (insert name of city the convention was to be held in). We call on (insert name of other party) to follow suit, and hope the American people will understand that charity must sometimes come before politics."

Said Cousino: "They would win my vote."