What if campaigns gave 10% to charity?

(Image from Illusions Gallery: Charity by William-Adolphe Bouguereau )

Here's a really good idea from Devilstower on DailyKos: How about presidential campaigns give 10% of their money to charity? Read the whole post, but here's a snippet:

The candidates can use their choice of charity to demonstrate their concerns. These kind of dollars could make a huge difference in funding for widespread problems like autism, or make possible cures for an "orphan" disease. A candidate might fund a "Meals on Wheels" program for a year, or after school programs for at-risk youth, or free clinics for those lacking health care. Heck, they could put their names across the back of every Little Leaguer in New Hampshire and it would still be better than paying millions for an ad firm to create another vacuous flag-waving sixty second spot and millions more to run it in the Tivo-bypassed wastelands.

Roll it into one big donation, or spread it around. Either way, I'm willing to bet that the media attention garnered from these donations will far exceed the effectiveness of any commercials that could have been made using the same funds. At the same time, the candidates will actually be helping people.

My church gives half of its Sunday offering to a local charity that helps needy people, and I'm very proud of that. It makes me feel useful to the world. I would be proud of Democrats if they turned their campaigns into something bigger than just promoting themselves. Bravo to Devilstower for putting forward this idea.