Barack Obama announced this morning that he will not enter into the public financing system for the presidential campaign, breaking his word to Common Cause and — by not discussing the issue with John McCain — to the late Tim Russert on national television. Entirely predictable, natch — and as noted earlier — he likely will pay no political price for doing so.ÂÂ
It is worth noting that Team Obama had the chutzpah to blame Team McCain for the latest in the exploding number of Obama flip-flops. Ed Morrissey lays out the basic explanation for why Obama’s rationales regarding donations from lobbyists and spending by independent “527” groups are malarkey, but it’s worth relinking to prior posts here explaining that Obama allows: “policy†and “campaign support†from well-connected Washington lobbyists; donations from their spouses; donations from well-connected state lobbyists and from people who work for Washington firms that do substantial lobbying; and millions upon millions from lawyers and lobbyists, the finance, insurance and real estate sector, and the healthcare sector. Indeed, federal lobbyists are allowed to volunteer for Obama (and presumably now the DNC). Moreover, as Patrick Ruffini notes, a whopping 1% of McCain’s donations were from PACs, even less from lobbyists.
As for those eeevil 527 groups, it should be noted that Obama does not want the money out of politics; he just wants to control the message. Moreover, the Left is continuing its efforts despite Obama:
Contrary to earlier reports about the demise of independent efforts this cycle, the work in 2008 will be robust, vibrant, and more coordinated than ever before. In 2008, the progressive movement is taking on an unprecedented collaboration of grassroots groups to raise $100 million that will mobilize millions of new voters and engage them in effective organizations that will be around long after November 4.
***
Through an effort dubbed the Jimmie Lee Jackson Project, PowerPAC will collaborate with groups like the NAACP, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the Pushback Network, and others to coordinate non-partisan registration, education, and mobilization efforts of African American voters during the General Election. Jimmie Lee Jackson was a 24-year-old civil rights demonstrator whose death at the hands of Alabama State Troopers led to the Selma-Montgomery march and passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Our coordinated Black voter drive will register and mobilize one million new Black voters through a $10 million, multi-state mobilization in states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia.
PowerPAC will also collaborate with the major grassroots mobilization efforts led by America Votes and its 30-plus partner organizations, representing the largest progressive issue-based organizations in the country…
***
Working from a common voter file, long-standing groups like the Sierra Club will contact 700,000 members and other voters concerned about environmental issues; the Campaign for Community Change will organize immigrant advocates and workers; Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood will carry the message to female voters; and the United States Student Association, Young Democrats of America and League of Young Voters will mobilize the millennial generation.
Personally, I have never been a big fan of public financing and — judging from the tax receipts — neither has the general public. But it is worth documenting that Obama’s “New Politics” looks a lot like the Nixon era — and that he will break his word whenever he deems it politically expedient.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
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The Charm of Nixon, the Acumen of Carter
The Leftovers from Clinton – Barack Obama, 2008
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that’s good, isn’t it.
We should all cheer this up, more taxpayers money are saved…
It’s a powerful, powerful statement against affirmative action. Baracky don’t need no government help, not like them others anyway. Good on him.
– What you see is the Obamarama having to face reality, and that reality is the Hillery people were the more well healed of this campaign. Its really that simple. It never was really practical, nor realistic for O! to state otherwise, and once again we see yet another lapse in judgment, chasing the ever present tendency of the Left to value perception over fact. It would seem that no matter how many times the perception game bites them on the ass, they just can’t help themselves.
– The Obama “myth” continues to erode, like the “old man of the sea” who’s lifetime catch has been reduced to a tattered spine, and a few rib bones, by the time he gets it back to the convention dock.
Obama apologizes to muslim women barred from stage at event. Explains it was done in their interest, preventing them from being later used by republican dirty tricksters to stir animosity among great unwashed.
“Obama
breakschanges his word on public financingâ€Â.Say what ? You mean there is coordination between the Obama campaign and the “independent 527†Progressive Media USA. Isn’t that illegal ?
Maybe that explains why McCain “sent no such clear signal.â€Â
Normally I would wonder what the FEC would have to say about that .. but due to a political tactics up in the Democrat controlled (most ethical) Congress (in history), the FEC is undermanned at the moment .. rendering it virtually useless.
It makes no difference if you’re black or white
If you’re a boy or a girl
If the money’s pumping it will give you new life
You’re a superstar, yes, that’s what you are, you know it
Neo,
So true. And to be scrupulously fair to the other side, the HuffPo suggests only that the 527s will be coordinating with each other, not with O! And while one is tempted to speculate about the latter, the reality is that the folks running 527s don’t need to coordinate in any formal way — the media environment gives anyone who cares the info needed to run a complimentary campaign effort.
Not that I’ll get any credit for mentioning it fom the Obamatons.
hf,
I now have to watch that video to make sure that isn’t O! in it…
just foreshadowing, I think
ChangeFlip-flopping you can believe in!!! O!No offense meant, but the efforts of those evil leftist groups to get out the vote don’t seem all that similar to Floyd Brown’s “exposeObama”, Fleischer’s “Freedom Watch”, or any of Bob Perry’s donations, as just a few examples. Most of those donations will be going to negative ads.
I believe David Brock and his lefty smear folks have announced they will abide by Obama’s request to not run attack ads; I don’t recall whether the Tennessee GOP, Bob Perry, or Freedom Watch have agreed to the same. I find it hard to juxtapose ugly ads with getting out the vote.
Max,
Yeah, the NAACP is totally not going to run ads like those it did comparing Bush to the guys who dragged a black man behind their pick-up truck. The Jimmie Lee Johnson thing is not a tipoff in the slightest. And the Sierra Club is going to run ads talking up Maverick’s ANWR stance for sure. BTW, if you followed the links, you’d see I covered the Brock angle.
hf,
I was thinking O! could be the dude at 2:11, but sadly not. Been a while since I watched it, so my memory was a little foggy. Directed by Fincher!
Whoa. That is him. The stache can throw you off, but there’s no question really.
liar liar pants on fire.
This is big deal how? He’s under no obligation to do anything with campaign fund-raising.
Breaking News: Barack Obama becomes first black man to turn down government money, admits he’s got too much of it. Full story at 10.
…[Obama] will break his word whenever he deems it politically expedient.
Now THAT is change that I can believe in!!!
Karl, I think the larger issue is that you want to hitch your wagon to the hop-on-pop crowd who would chisel away at the Obama product until you’ve succeeded in creating some kind of David with no arms. He’s still a statue, and you’re still a relic.
I did not follow the links, because I agreed with the spirit of the post, but thought you hadn’t demonstrated equivalence between those groups. And, while the James Byrd thing was deplorable (and factually wrong), wasn’t that a state effort and not a 527 nor a national campaign.
Boooo-yah, cynn. Whatever that means.
Better watch the water, the blow fish are feeling puffy tonight.
#18 thor
Now that’s funny.
What does Obama need money for? How much could it cost to run 5 second spots that say “Watch MSNBC”?
…the hop-on-pop crowd who would chisel away at the Obama product until you’ve succeeded in creating some kind of
David with no armsVenus de Milo statue.This is big deal how? He’s under no obligation to do anything with campaign fund-raising
“I don’t see why you all have made such a big deal of my indiscretions. It’s really a private matter and not illegal.” ~~Elliot Spitzer
Comment by Darleen on 6/19 @ 9:25 pm #
This is big deal how? He’s under no obligation to do anything with campaign fund-raising
“I don’t see why you all have made such a big deal of my indiscretions. It’s really a private matter and not illegal, unless I’m prosecuting the case.†~~Elliot Spitzer
“Elliot Spitzer, bringing prostitution to its knees, one hooker at a time”.
Max,
The NAACP ad was of course still a non-profit 501(c)(4) independent expenditure effort. And yes, if you make enough menaingless distinctions, Floyd Brown can look pretty bad all by himself.
cynn,
As I Hope I conveyed in the post, I really don’t care about Obama’s fundraising — only that he said one thing repeatedly, then did the 180 when it suited him. O! learned the Alinsky rules, so he’s well aware people will hold him to his own pronouncements.
Obama apologizes to muslim women barred from stage at event. Explains it was done in their interest…
Like wearing burkas and never leaving the house without a chaperone.
Entirely predictable, natch  and as noted earlier  he likely will pay no political price for doing so.
Not from his base, but this kind of shit is going to motivate those wishy washy about McCain. It is driving me in that direction anyway.
From the AP story on this:
“‘Change We Can Believe In’ has been thrown overboard for ‘Political Expediency I Can Win With,'” said Todd Harris, a Republican analyst and aide to former presidential candidate Fred Thompson in the primary. “Every time Obama’s change rhetoric meets his actual change record it evaporates in a cloud of hypocrisy.”
I thought Obama’s wives were off limits.
All of them? Sorry, I didn’t realize.
And all 139 children too!
– At the rate Obama’s going, with the fuckups almost daily, by the time he gets to some October surprise, Like a Ralph Nadar or some such, he’s going to be ready to fucking nuke ANWAR,
I have come to believe that Obama is Soros’s stalking horse. Obama, without a teleprompter is showing everyone who wishes to look, that he is too stupid to be president. His ignorance is startling.
But the Dems don ‘t care how stupid he is, because anyone with half a brain knows that Soros has put this nitwit out front as a stalking horse.
Hey! I’ve got a good idea! Let’s elect an empty suit to the presidency, so that George Soros can stick it up our butts, and destroy what is left of our “republic”.
As far as I can see, if Obama is elected, we will have a convicted criminal, who has made billions of dollars by screwing with “capitalism” (and who, BTW, HATES capitalism even though it has made him unbelieveably rich) running this country into the ground.
Anybody who thinks that Soros isn’t behind this charade, raise your hand.
And then slink awqay in shame.
O! might be “hopey changey”, but, if you tske the time to listen to him, he is dumber than my front doorknob.
George Soros (who HATES this country) is on the verge of taking over our presidency. If you don’t believe it, I am sorry for you. If you pay ANY attention to O!, he is incredibly intellectually empty, and appears to have no clue about just how stupid he really is.. What he says without the teleprompter should make all Americans shiver at the thought of him being our president.
My goodness! I can’t believe that I am actually going to vote for McCain.
Unless he kicks me in the nuts again….
Comment by cynn on 6/19 @ 8:36 pm #
“Karl, I think the larger issue is that you want to hitch your wagon to the hop-on-pop crowd who would chisel away at the Obama product until you’ve succeeded in creating some kind of David with no arms. He’s still a statue, and you’re still a relic.”
Yeah, arms make sense… the head is already long gone….
This discussion is not helping O!’s 139 children.
Comment by Karl on 6/20 @ 12:19 am #
This discussion is not helping O!’s 139 children.
That’s because it “takes a village” to get fresh fruit.
– Ok. Judging from the tone of yesterdays “new face” campaign ads, camp Obama has officially kicked off the “New” new persona for the O! man, with an accompanying makeover for his wife.
– This weeks focus will be shifting from “Changi-hopeyness Man” to “FamilyValues-spritualiness Man” for him, and “StrongMother-Intelligess Wife” for her, from “America-hatiness Angry scold”, as they veer toward the center. No doubt the decision to drink the sweet nector from the fountains of SorosTheVulture was prompted from the need to make this campaign about PR, since duking it out with McCain was proving to be a losing formula.
– His campaign has now added even more annoying targets to the daily growing pile of “under the back of the MagicBus” residents, which now includes the youth vote, replaced by a squad of political zombies right out of a King horror novel, and anyone whos clothing can be mistaken for a ME religious follower, head coverings of any sort are now verboten.
– All of this Hollywood fantalizing not withstanding, it remains to be seen if the Obamatons can actually distract the Electorate with the latest bright shiny objects dejour at a time when hes getting his ass kicked over the Iraq situation as it steadily improves, and the growing anger and unrest with the whole American voter base over the gas price tsunomi that threatens the wash over both him and the entire Democratic Congress like a extra large Rootbeer cascading down off your dashboard into your lap after a sudden bone jarring stop to check out that sweet bitch in the DKNY hip huggers, see through tank top, and Terontelli spike glitter slides, leaning back in a StarBucks patio chair like a Vogue fashion ad sun goddess.
The left will make perception into fact, by golly, either by silencing those who call attention to the emperor’s new clothes or by redefining language to create the reality. As Lenin said, no practice or policy is beneficial to the revolution unless it is supported by a theory, which is another way of saying “create a theory and then force them to practice it.”
Ah, let’s have some more of that good ol’ dialectic!
I ran out of breath while readin the final clause and fell headlong onto the keyboard. Damn, that’s good stuff!
Breaking News: Barack Obama becomes first black man to turn down government money, admits he’s got too much of it. Full story at 10.
HA! Now, thor, if you could bring teh funny a bit more often, your O! infatuation could be overlooked.
Did you get a picture of her, if so where do we find it. I’m intrigued.
I keep thinking Obama is going to get trounced in the general election. Middle America will never vote for him, not because he’s black but b/c he’s clearly way left. While pandering the unions will certainly help, if McCain simply focuses on Obama’s complete lack of experience, especially in foreign policy matters, it shouldn’t even be close. He can change his message as many times as he wants but he can’t change the lack of experience.
It worked so well for Hillary why not focus on experience in the general.
Brilliant, counselor.
Hillary didn’t do so well on the experience thing because an “experienced” 60-year-old woman is just icky.
Not that an inexperienced one is anything to write home about…
Please, allow me:
Obvs, I’ve said this is a “change” election, so I think it predominates over experience in this cycle. But the Dem primaries are not a great analogy. HRC had precious little experience of her own. McCain may have too much.
And with #49 McGehee earns the mid-afternoon snark-zinger award.
Nice.
Am I in the running for the “…of the day” award? ‘Cause if I can’t parlay this into the big time, what’s it worth?
[…] I noted last Thursday, I have never been a big fan of public financing and  judging from the tax receipts  neither […]
gas prices are still on the rise today, we should go Alternative Fuel,”`