Watch CBS News

Presidential Campaign By The Numbers

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The 2012 presidential election will go down as the first billion dollar campaign in American history, but that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the numbers that will define the 2012 election.

Combined, the President Barack Obama campaign and pro-Obama Super PAC and the Mitt Romney campaign and pro-Romney Super PAC have spent $1.6 billion on a job that pays $1.6 million over four years in office. More than 1,000 Super PAC's were registered in 2012 and combined they raised $661 million, according to the Huffington Post.

President Obama made a total of 227 campaign stops compared to Romney's 294 campaign stops, according to the Huffington Post. Of Romney's 294 campaign stops, 46 of them were in the crucial swing state of Ohio.

Between the Republican primary and the general election, there were a total of 24 debates (20 in the primary and 4 general election debates including the vice-presidential debate).

Obama managed to land more newspaper endorsements among the largest 100 papers in the country, 41-35 over Romney.

According to a BBC World survey, only one out of 22 countries would elect Mitt Romney if they were voting for the U.S. candidates, the lone country being Pakistan.

And if you think the political ads have been out of control this year, you're not that far off. According to the Huffington Post, 1,015,615 political ads were run to support or oppose the presidential candidates since June 1, 2012. That was a nearly 40 percent increase from 2008.

Finally, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who vowed to spend $100 million to defeat Obama, ended up spending about half that much. All total, his family gave $54 million to conservative super PAC's.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.