As I’m sure most of my readers are interested in my personal life (Ed: no, we’ve talked about this), I thought I’d share that I am an active amateur astronomer. I have a couple of telescopes, and I enjoy looking at and learning about the amazing wonders up in the Colorado night sky. I’ve also been involved in giving talks about astronomy to the public, and one area that is often hard to get people to understand is the problem of large numbers. A billion is a thousand times bigger than a million, but often those numbers seem to merge into a murky mass of mathematics.

Which, of course, brings me to why U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet very likely won’t be president any time soon.

Bennet, my old boss, would make an excellent president. And that’s not just me saying it. Heavyweights such as George Will have written that if the Dems are serious about defeating President Trump, Michael Bennet may well be the best choice. Others have said the same thing. So why am I pessimistic about Bennet’s chances? Well, it’s because he’s only worth about $16 million.

Now, to most folks, your humble scribe included, that’s a pretty big pile of cash. I think I could make do with $16 million, and I’m betting that for most folks, that would be a pretty big uptick in wealth. Remember that before he entered public service and took a massive pay cut to do so, Bennet was very successful in the private sector, and earned everything he got. There was no “small loan” of a million or two to get him started; Bennet is a self-made man.

And so here we need to talk about the problem of big numbers. The aforementioned $16 million sounds like more money than one could ever spend, but that’s not the case. Bennet’s solid bottom line pales in comparison to others in the Democratic field, especially the two gentlemen with the deepest pockets, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg.  Steyer checks in at a net worth of roughly $1.6 billion, and Bloomberg has an astounding $56.7 billion. Let’s try to put those numbers in context, shall we?

A million sounds like a lot (and for most folks, it is), but if I asked you to count to a million, one number every second, it would take you about 12 days to get to a million. That’s a lot of counting. But if I asked you to count to a billion, well, that would take you 32 years. A billionaire is vastly, hugely, monstrously wealthier than a simple millionaire. So even if Bennet spent his entire net worth, sold his house, and lived in a van down by the river, he would still only be a tiny shadow to the spending power of the billionaire class. Heck, Bloomberg just spent $100 million on tv ads in one month! He (along with Trump) just spent $10 million on a single ad to be aired during the Super Bowl.

Now, does having so much money to burn guarantee electoral success? No, certainly not. But it does create a cloud of political noise that is very tough to break through for the “poorer” candidates like Bennet. And I’m guessing that there are quite a few thoughtful Republicans who look back on the 2016 GOP primary season and wonder if Trump’s wealth was a decisive factor in his win. 

There is a way out though…

First, we need to overturn Citizen’s United, the hugely controversial Supreme Court decision that basically said big corporations and big labor unions, as well as others, are people, in the sense that they can have political opinions and can make unlimited donations to political causes they favor. That will take a constitutional amendment, which will be tough.

But we also have a way to a better world here in Colorado and all the states. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution declares that each state has the right to prescribe the times, places, and manner of elections. Simply put, state government, I argue, can regulate the manner of elections, to include spending limits. I’m not a lawyer, but I taught the Constitution for years, and I sincerely think this may be our way out.

So, don’t look for Bennet at the top of the Democratic ticket come this fall, but I do predict he will be the VP nominee. At the top? Hard to say, but no doubt money will play a big role in whose name ends up there. After all, a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking real money.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.