Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Big Money Lies

Some lies and misconceptions about Barack's fundraising are cleared up by Andrew Romano at Newsweek. He's numbered and responded to 4 big ones, which are presented in short form here.

1. Obama Opted Out of Public Financing for Reasons of Principle - Um, no. This one would've been too obvious to refute, except that when Obama ducked his promise to "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election" last month, he tried to portray the decision as something other than pure pragmatism. "Declare your independence from this broken system," he told supporters. Baloney.

How much of a liar is Barack on this?
In early 2007, Obama informed Larry King that "the presidential public financing system works," and the next month, he co-sponsored legislation to preserve the current setup.
The biggest lie of all is Myth Number 2:

2. Obama Gets All—or Even the Vast Majority—of His Money from Small Donors
Nonsense!

Obama's fundraising base still looks a lot like Al Gore's or John Kerry's. For starters, the majority of Obama's money continues to come from folks with fat(ter) wallets. In the primaries, for example, donations larger than $200 accounted for 55 percent of Obama's haul, or about $150 million. Lawyers forked over $18 million of that total; the largest single contributor was Goldman Sachs. And now that the primaries are over, Obama is free—like McCain—to funnel checks larger than $2,300 through the national party. He's taking full advantage of that luxury.
How egalitarian is Barack's fundraising?

In June, Obama reaped $6 million from guests at Ethel Kennedy's Hickory Hill home in Virginia. Ten days ago, the campaign pulled in $5 million at a Hollywood fundraiser. And just last night, Obama visited a pair of plush money events in the tony suburbs of Atlanta. At each appearance, supporters shelled out $28,500—the legal limit on donations to the DNC—for the privilege of Obama's presence.

More on Barack's money lies later. Absorb this for now.


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