Obama breaks financing pledge - Discuss?

The news is all atwitter (yes, I used "atwitter" in a sentence) about the huge amount raised in September. What I don't understand is why on earth no one is mentioning that all this money is the result of his first broken pledge; his first campaign lie.

He pledged, along with John McCain, to accept public funding, and to limit his spending to that amount (84 million). It was, in fact, OBAMA'S suggestion.

Read here

John McCain kept his word. Obama broke his. John McCain has been limited to the allocated funds. Obama has a chest of some very unusual donations, including those from individuals with the unlikely names of "Doodad Pro" and "Goodwill".

Barack Obama has the biggest media blitz going ever. He has spent more on this election than Bush and Kerry spent together. He is buying this election as surely as any ever have.

And nary a peep of protest from the left.

Could you imagine if the shoe were on the other foot? If Obama had kept his word and McCain had broken his pledge? That point would be hammered home with every new donation.

Supporter of Obama or supporter of McCain, doesn't it bother you that this sort of imbalanced spending is going on? And to Obama supports, doesn't it bother that he made the offer, John McCain accepted, then Obama breaks his word? You know, some might even see that as his plan all along....

Renee, would you reconsider re-titleing your thread?

The topic is fine to discuss and your feelings/thoughts but I just think the subject title induces anger to either side before they even open the thread....

abasketclayse wrote:

Renee, would you reconsider re-titleing your thread?

The topic is fine to discuss and your feelings/thoughts but I just think the subject title induces anger to either side before they even open the thread....

Not a problem...but it does reflect my true feelings. I am really angry about this injustice. But for the sake of the board, I will.

Thank you - I know you feel strongly about it and that's cool. I know emotions are running REALLY high and hope we can continue to discuss/vent etc. here while maintaining some type of control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/us/politics/20obamacnd.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Quote :

Mr. Obama stopped short of making a flat promise to participate in the public financing system. Asked in a questionnaire whether he would take part if his opponents did the same, Mr. Obama wrote yes. But he added, “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Mr. Obama has since said that he would only agree to such a deal if Mr. McCain agreed to curtail spending by the Republican Party and independent groups.

In public financing, the candidates have the opportunity to accept $84 million from the government, do not need to spend time and resourses on fund raising, but have spending limitations. This has worked to the Republican's favor over the years because while the candidate has spending limitations, independent PAC and other groups do not. Millions and millions of dollars in ads funded by the Republican National Committee and fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs flood the market and have no spending limits.

1) Obama suggested that he would agree to public financing for his campaign if McCain would meet with him to discuss limitation on spending by the Republican Party and independent groups as well. This meeting did not take place, so Obama made the decision to not accept public financing. (BTW, This was in June, two months before the National Democratic Convention, when Obama was just a candidate in a hotly contested race for the nomination with Hillary Clinton.)

2) Historically, the Republicans have always had the advantage in spending power during the presidential campaigning, and McCain himself said he was not suggesting the Obama campaign had done anything illegal or improper.

3) Back in June, Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain said, "I assume (Obama's) going to outspend us," but he added that the money advantage would prove to be less important than it appeared: “We don't have to spend as much as he does to win.”

4) The average (mean) donation of all those contributing to Obama's campaigning is $83. The money is coming in from a huge number of small donors (600,000 individual donors in the past month), not from large donors who might expect some kind of compensation of their largess.

5) I'm wondering why this is news, because Obama agreed to go the private financing route in June, five months ago. I can only guess it's because no one, including Obama himself, expected to have raised this amount of money. I think it speaks more to the eagerness for change when people who have never donated to a political campaign are sending their money to the Obama campaign.

Quote :

In the most expensive presidential contest in the nation's history, John F. Kerry and his Democratic supporters nearly matched President Bush and the Republicans, who outspent them by just $60 million, $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion.

....to give you an idea of the actual total number of dollars spent on a presidental election. The $84 million in public financing is a pitance in the overall scheme of things.

The amount of $$$ spent overall is staggering....