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Yesterday, June 19, 2008, Obama announced his campaign had “made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election.” Forgoing it in favor of grassroots donations collected online from his supporters. Most of the donations are under $200 each.
His reasoning behind the decision is that the public financing system is broken. It allows candidates to receive campaign money from Washington lobbyist and special interest groups with a political agenda of their own due to a number of loopholes in the system.
Obama asks his supporters to “declare our independence from a broken system and run the type of campaign that reflects the grassroots values that have all ready changed our politics and brought us this far.” This, he proposes, will aid the process of changing Washington and therefore, America. Not only does it distance him from the corruption of Washington, it also allows for more time campaigning for the election and less time campaigning for money.
I, for one, think distancing himself from the public financing system is a good move on his part. Does anyone remember the 2000 election and the contributions big oil made to the Bush campaign? Now look where we are? $4.00 gas is the average price across the country and we are engaged in a war with no foreseeable end in sight. I would like to avoid that with the next president, if I could.
That is not to say that those making contributions to Obama do not have a political agenda of their own. Take for instance the Native American Nations who have contributed to his campaign. They, along with millions of other Americans want something. We want change for the better. And we’re hoping Obama can bring it.
Obama’s announcement: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/bignews?source=eo_twitter
Check out who’s contributing to what: http://www.campaignmoney.com/
Bush’s Oil Contributions: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1232
Obama’s Might Break the System: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/us/politics/20finance.html
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(1) Obama specifically promised he would not do this earlier in his campaign. He’s now shown his promise means nothing, he can’t be trusted.
(2) Every candidate since 1976 from both parties has used public money to pay for their campaigns. Obama acted unilaterally to reject this, that’s not the mark of a good leader, it’s exactly what Obama accuses Bush of doing in foreign policy. Hypocrisy!
(3) Obama may be able to raise more money on his own, but what about the NEXT candidate of the Democratic party? You YOURSELF admit that Republicans have a pipeline to big money, and the whole point of campaign finance reform was to cut that off. Now Obama has set the precedent to start up the whole problem all over again. So don’t complain when the Republicans crush you with money in the next election.
(4) Using public money means the candidates have a level playing field with each spending the same amount, and don’t waste time fundraising when they should be talking about issues.
