New York’s John Heilemann appeared on Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday night to discuss the astronomical sums of money that wealthy donors, parties, and others will spend to help win the White House this November. But curiously, as Heilemann explores in his cover story, President Obama is actually anticipating having less cash behind his campaign than Mitt Romney. “When you’re an incumbent president, you have the expectation that you’re never going to get outspent,” Heilemann says. “It’s never happened before.” But according to Heilemann, Obama’s campaign is convinced that they will be the financial underdogs, perhaps by as much as 40 percent. Regarding total spending by both Democrats and Republicans, Heilemann says, “You’re going to see $2.5 billion get spent basically in nine or ten states. And no one has ever seen anything like that. It’s like a test-tube experiment.”
