{"id":12548,"date":"2008-06-19T19:14:18","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T01:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=12548"},"modified":"2008-06-19T19:14:18","modified_gmt":"2008-06-20T01:14:18","slug":"the-obama-breaks-his-word-on-public-financing-post-karl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=12548","title":{"rendered":"The “Obama breaks his word on public financing” post [Karl]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> and — by not discussing<\/a> the issue with John McCain — to the late Tim Russert<\/a>\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0on national television. Entirely predictable, natch — and as noted earlier — he likely will pay no political price<\/a> for doing so.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that Team Obama had the chutzpah<\/em> to blame Team McCain<\/a> for the latest in the exploding number of Obama flip-flops.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Ed Morrissey<\/a> 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<\/a> posts<\/a> here<\/a> explaining that Obama allows: \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cpolicy\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d and \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccampaign support\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d 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\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0and real estate sector, and the healthcare sector.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, federal lobbyists are allowed to volunteer for Obama (and presumably now the DNC).\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Moreover, as Patrick Ruffini<\/a> notes, a whopping 1% of McCain’s donations were from PACs, even less from lobbyists.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover,\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0the Left is\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0continuing its efforts<\/a> despite Obama:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally, I have never been a big fan of public financing and — judging from the tax receipts — neither has the general public.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

(h\/t Memeorandum<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0on national television. Entirely predictable, natch — and as noted earlier — he likely will pay no political price for doing so.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It is worth noting that Team Obama had<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}