Big Dogs Weblog

Obama Cops Out on Public Financing

Jun 19, 2008 Political

Today Barack Obama released a video on his campaign website informing his supporters that he is opting out of public financing and that the reason is because it is a “broke system.” Don’t pay any attention to that crap because it is an outright lie. Barack Hussein Obama is opting out because he does not want to be limited by how much he can take in. He is amassing huge quantities of money and he would not be able to accept any more of it after the Democratic Convention. That is the ONLY reason he is opting out.

Sure, he gave the boiler plate excuse of a broken system that is effectively gamed by his opponents but that is a ruse to take away the perception that he is the same old money grubbing politician as all the others that he criticizes. Obama had earlier stated that he would be happy to come to an agreement with the Republicans on public financing and at that time he never indicated that the system was broken. He is telling supporters that the Republicans have lobbyist money and all the 527 groups to pay their way and attack for them. The reality is, Obama has the 527s and George Soros is one of the biggest contributers. Obama has the support of MoveOn.org an organization that is paying for and running attack ads against John McCain. Notice that Obama never mentioned all the support he gets.

It is also important to note that Obambi did not get all his money from Joe Six Pack giving $5 and $10. Obama accepts special interest money and he accepts from lobbyists and PACs. He just does it in a more clandestine fashion. You see, he will take the money from family members of those people. It does not take a genius to figure that it is all the same money and that he WILL owe political favors. Obama has received more money than any of the other candidates (current and past) from the pharmaceutical industry. Make no mistake about it, Obama is as smarmy as the rest of them despite his claims to the contrary.

As I stated, Barack Hussein Obama is swearing off public financing because he wants to keep raking in the big bucks. Of course, John McCain has gamed the system as well and the sweet irony is that his landmark legislation on campaign finance reform seems to be biting him in the rear.

Neither of these men wants to accept public financing. The first reason is it will limit them to what they may take in. The second is, they do not want an election of the people. The idea behind public finance is:

The program is designed to rein in out-of-control spending by the presidential campaigns, provide candidates with enough funds to run a viable campaign and minimize the leverage special-interest money has in the process of electing a candidate to country’s highest office. Common Cause

You don’t actually think these two, or any of them for that matter, actually want this now do you? They want special interests involved and they want to become wealthy in the process.

Barack Hussein Obama can claim he is a fresh change, a new kind of politician, or the cure for what ails us but he is really nothing more than a lowlife Chicago politician who is smarmy and as slick as Clinton.

The system is now broken when he made no mention of that before. I guess what Obama is saying is; “This is not the public financing I knew.”

UPDATE: I got a follow email from his campaign extolling the virtues of Obama’s decision:

Even though we stood to receive more than $80 million in taxpayer funding for our campaign, the system has been so gamed and exploited by our opponents that it is effectively broken.

This is a half truth. Obama could have gotten 80 million dollars in taxpayer money but only if he did not accept any more donations after the convention. That bit of information is missing. The email also informs us that McCain has 527 support without mentioning the 527s heavily supporting Obama. And of course, this is all topped off with a request for money. Make no mistake, this is a ploy. Obama did what is best for him. The system is not broken, it just does not work in his favor, which I guess is the Democrat’s idea of broken…

UPDATE 2: The Washington Post, of all papers, is criticizing Obama and calling him on his reason for not accepting public financing:

Mr. Obama had an opportunity here to demonstrate that he really is a different kind of politician, willing to put principles and the promises he has made above political calculation. He made a different choice, and anyone can understand why: He’s going to raise a ton of money. Mr. McCain played games with taking federal matching funds for the primaries until it turned out he didn’t need them, and he had a four-month head start in the general election while Mr. Obama was still battling for the nomination. Outside groups are going to come after him. He has thousands of small donors along with his big bundlers. And so on.

Fine. Politicians do what politicians need to do. But they ought to spare us the self-congratulatory back-patting while they’re doing it.

Tags: george soros, lies, MoveOn.org, Obama, public financing, special interests

PAC Man Obama and the DNC

Jun 8, 2008 Political

Anyone who has been following the Democratic Primary knows that Barack Obama claims that he does not accept money from lobbyists and special interests. This is, of course, a fabrication or a stretching of the truth (rather Clintonesque) because he does in fact take their money though not necessarily directly. When Obama became the presumptive nominee he directed Howard Dean to stop taking special interest money in order for the DNC to be aligned with Obama’s so called beliefs.

I received an email from Howard Dean telling me of the major policy change:

As we move toward the general election, the Democratic Party has to be the Party of ordinary Americans, not Washington lobbyists and special interests. So, as of this morning, if you’re a federal lobbyist, or if you control political action committee donations, we won’t be accepting your contribution.

This is an unprecedented move for a political party to make — one that has sent shockwaves through Washington and has turned the debate on clean campaigns upside down. We’ve unilaterally agreed to shut lobbyists out of the process, and are we’re relying on people just like you.

Just imagine what hundreds of thousands of Americans donating $20, $30, or $50 at a time can accomplish together. Imagine the signal that it sends to anyone who looks at John McCain’s political machine and the special interest money it needs to fuel every move it makes. [DNC Email]

First of all the only shock waves this is sending is to people who do not believe for one moment that this is true. They intend to continue taking special interest money but they will do so in a more clandestine manner just as the Obamessiah does:

Obama’s ban on lobbyists money is not ironclad. He does accept money from lobbyists who do not do business with the federal government and he also accepts money from spouses and family members of lobbyists. He has had unpaid advisers with federal lobbying clients, and some campaign officials also previously had lobbying jobs. Yahoo News

The DNC email indicates that this is a new direction and that it is important for them to be the party of ordinary Americans. They are basically telling people that for years they have not been the party of ordinary Americans but they are now simply because they stopped **wink, wink** taking special interest money. Obama is using his pretend ban on such money to advance a cause that he is a DC outsider and the DNC is now trying to capitalize on this by saying they are the good ones but the evil Republicans will still have their bad lobbyist money to make attacks on the Obamessiah. The plea from the Obama camp came out nearly immediately but it neglected to tell the whole truth. Todd Warner Huston, blogging at Stop the ACLU, responded to the following from the DNC:

“We need to respond quickly and show that we are ready to take on Senator McCain in the general election,” Plouffe wrote. “We are going to compete in the general election the same way we have all along_by depending on a movement of more than 1.5 million people giving only what they can afford.”

With this: (Click for response)

I have never believed this prattle about PAC money, lobbyist money and any of the rest of the ‘Obama is better because [fill in the blank].’ When it comes to politics Barack Hussein Obama is as dirty and smarmy as the rest of them. He aligned himself with people like Wright, Rezko, and Pfleger in Chicago in order to develop Chicago political creds. Obama is a dirty Chicago politician (which is redundant) and he will do anything to win. Barack Hussein Obama knows how to play dirty politics and has demonstrated that in his campaigns within the state of Illinois with some of the things he did to get rid of others who were running against him. Is there any wonder as to why Obama put a hold on an FEC nominee? Without a quorum they cannot investigate election fraud and a nominee with a hold cannot be approved. The hold has been lifted (after someone discovered Obama did it) but the Senate seems to be doing Obama’s bidding by not confirming FEC members prior to the November election. Keep this in mind should Democrats start whining like children about voter fraud. If they cannot get it investigated it will be their own faults (I imagine they don’t care because they expect to win big time but Hillary had the same attitude and look what happened to her)

One only needs to realize that Barack Hussein Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Clinton machine. No rookie could ever accomplish such a task. No outsider could have beaten them at their own game. No, this took someone with political savvy, the kind that is developed in the dirty, unethical, and corrupt Chicago political system. Barack Obama learned well and he is putting it to use. To top it off, he is so good when giving a speech he is able to suck people in without any substance. They believe him when he says he does not take special interest money and they believe him and the DNC when they swear McCain will have big special interest money backing him (so please give now to fight them off!!!).

Obama is the darling of organized labor. The teacher’s unions will flock to him because he is a Democrat and he makes the usual promises about giving away money to teachers and improving education (something that no one has done yet and an attitude responsible for the failure of the educational system). Obama will get tons of money from the unions and he will get tons of money from other special interest groups.

He and his minions will claim that this is OK because these are the right kinds of groups that government needs to be involved with and not the rich entities that flock to Republicans (see previous list). They will say it is for the children and that labor unions represent the working stiffs in this country (another lie) and that taking their money is necessary to help them. Obama will continue to take special interest money, hand over fist, up until election day. He will get away with taking it and denying it because those who follow him are not bright enough to get past the rhetoric and empty promises.

No matter what they want to say the DNC and Barack Obama take special interest money and they take lots of it. Obama has gotten quite a bit more than Republicans from some of the bogey man companies that are usually bashed as Republican friendly (like pharmaceuticals). He will continue to get a lot of money and smile while he is taking it.

I would like to know how much of his money comes from overseas and other illegal donors…

UPDATE: Dumb Looks Still Free has a great post with Obama’s early contributions, some from PACs and oil companies. When did he become a “new” politician?

Tags: dnc, fabrications, lies, lobbyists, Obama, pac money, special interests