The Truth: Obama and Campaign Cash
As we all have heard, Barack Obama was forgone the traditional route of choosing to have a publicly financed campaign. That is, to take government money set aside to fund the race for the White House. Obama is the first politician to do this in thirty years or so, but let’s face it, we should not be so surprised. And ultimately, his descision makes sense for one big reason: In politics, as in most of life, money is power. Obama is a fundraising juggernaut with a record setting number of donors. If anyone can raise huge heaps of cash, its Barack Obama. However, his decision has been very controversial, as it should be.
I have a huge problem with the way that Obama justified his actions. Rather than admit that he can rasie more cash than McCain this way, he used some sort of twisted victim logic by saying that the independent conservative groups (like the ones that savaged Kerry in ‘04) give McCain an advantage and that McCain is not trying to stop them. First of all, it is illegal for campaigns to in any way coordinate with these independent groups (called 527’s, they are non-profit orgs that file under that code). Second of all, McCain has been soft on Obama and hard on people that attack Obama. The notion that McCain is in some way encouraging attacks is prepostorous. Also, it should be noted that smears aimed at Obama come from both the right and disinfranchised Clinton supporters.
Obama should have just said something like, "hey, I can raise a lot of money this way, and I have over a million donors, so why not?"
Just be honest about this Obama. You want a lot of money. You can raise a lot of money. I have no problem with what Obama is doing with campaign finances, but he should at least be honest regarding his motivations. Otherwise, he’s just a typical politician.
