The 2012 US election cycle costs nearly $6 billion, and Fault Lines correspondent Sebastian Walker follows that money from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The film shows the machinery behind the balloons and speeches: the corporate sponsors, the security operations, the television advertising buys, and the donors writing checks that turn convention centers into weeklong productions. Walker talks to delegates and party operatives inside the halls, then steps outside to find the Americans who have no seat at either convention and no stake in the spending, asking what the spectacle actually buys for people watching it on television rather than attending it. The film treats both parties evenhandedly, tracking the same financial patterns at each convention rather than singling one out. With three months left before the vote, it frames the conventions less as democratic ritual and more as an expensive advertisement, and asks directly who foots the bill and who gets left standing outside the arena.