Quote:
Originally Posted by onlydarksets
You do realize that statements like this marginalize the good points you make in many of your posts, right?
I don't see this as a betrayal of trust. There were two things he simply didn't know in November that he knows now:
- That he could raise almost half of his money in unbundled contributions of $200 or less.
- That the primary would deeply fracture the Democrat party.
Public funding was instituted after the Watergate scandal (as was the FEC) to remove the appearance of corruption (or actual corruption) by minimizing the role of the big contributor. In the primary, Obama raised almost half of his funds from individual, non-bundled contributions of $200 or less. He didn't have "Rangers" grabbing $2300 from every CEO in Chicago and passing those on in a bundle to curry favor as his sole financial base. Accepting public funding doesn't do much to remove the appearance of a fat-cat pulling strings when you raise money this way.
As for the damage to the party during the primary, it's going to take a lot of money to right that ship.
I'm not sure either is sufficient by itself, but when considered together, I can't say I blame him. It also doesn't destroy his word. |
The weakest argument is the one that says, "Whe he made the commitment to public financing he didn't know how much money he could raise." This is like saying, "When I married my wife, I didn't realize the twenty-two year old former cheerleader was going to move in next door".
I also find it interesting that everyone says that BHO will not be beholden to his contributors. I thought his contributors were all mom and pop salt of the earth types, so wouldn' he want to be beholden to them? The idea that Democratic givers are intrinsically more virtuous than Republican givers is an assumption the media is making that should probably be looked into.
In addition, Obama made the argument that he needs the money to head off GOP 527s at the pass. But the only 527 add I've seen, and I'm in a suppossed battleground area, is one run by AFSCME, the government workers union. So I guess Obama actually is using a form of "public financing". I pay taxes, which pay the buearacrats, which pays their union dues, which bought those adds. The add featured a woman with a baby and the woman telling McCain he couldn't have her baby for the war in Iraq. Apparently the consultants who wrote the add aren't aware that the draft was done away with in the early 70s. Totally over the top. Yet Obama will continue to play the victim.