Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Commentary: Obama breaks promise on campaign finance - CNN.com

Campaign finance reform has been a rather important issue to me over the years and supposedly an issue Obama was going to address and work with his rival republican candidate in one of his claims last year.

In this election, Obama has raised more than Bush or Kerry combined in 2004: $600 Million dollars. He's now justifying his lack of effort on Campaign Finanace reform on protecting himself from political attack ads from certain small groups with lots of rich people.

Those attacks never came and if they did, we've hardly heard much of them beyond a wimper.

$600 million dollars.

I wonder how much of that will be left over after the election. If Obama happens to not win (which at this point I doubt), he'll be set for life. Not bad for a tonic salesman spreading false hope, I hope he'll be using that money to improve our economy and be heavily taxed either way. But I do doubt that.

I wonder how many houses he'll have

[Satimasu]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Yeah, he'll just heavily tax us instead.

[Skoal]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Malacite!!!! Come quick Obama needs your help!!!!

[Mhurron]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Make promises to get elected, do nothing once you are. It has been like this for as long as democracy has existed.

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are to believe that this time when this guy says it it's going to be different.

[Skoal]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Make promises to get elected, do nothing once you are. It has been like this for as long as democracy has existed.

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are to believe that this time when this guy says it it's going to be different.

But but Mhurron he said so himself that things are going to be different. How dare you question Robin Hood.

[Feba]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

we've hardly heard much of them beyond a wimper.

This is the case. It wasn't this way last time, though. You should remember Swift Boat, or at least be able to google it.

IIRC, the statement was more along the lines of a pledge to aggressively attempt to form an agreement with the republican candidate; I may be wrong on that. If that's the case, it could be the McCain campaign's fault for failing to follow through with that; or it could be a CYA move. Either way, this happened months ago, and the fact that it's being dug up again is hilarious in how desperate it is. If you want to criticize Obama for doing something wrong, there are so many better things out there.

I wonder how much of that will be left over after the election. If Obama happens to not win (which at this point I doubt), he'll be set for life.

You do realize that one of the big things Obama supports, which you can see in any number of articles on him and his campaign's financing, is returning money to donors, right?

Here, I found the quote.

"My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election... If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

You could argue he broke a promise, that might be fair. That doesn't mean he's opposed to Campaign Finance Reform, though, nor does it mean his finances are some how illegitimate. It also has nothing to do with taxation, these are donations given willingly, not being taken from taxpayer funds.

[Ameroth]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are to believe that this time when this guy says it it's going to be different.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein.

[Malacite]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Does anyone honestly give a shit? I agree it's an obscene amount of money but it's not like he got it illegally. I know that the point is it's the one promise he's broken, but given the circumstances I'll let it pass.

The sad fact is without that kind of money I'm not sure he would have been able to fight through all the lies and bull shit of the GOP. For the first time in history, the Democrats have been able to out spend them and we really need Obama in there to turn things around.

It'd be great if it didn't take this kind of obscene money to run for office, but it only seems like a lot to us. Combined, Mc Cain and Obama have spent just over 1.1 billion on their campaigns. The annual GDP of the USA is 14 trillion. In all seriousness it's a drop in the fucking bucket and there are far greater things to worry about.


If you want to talk about big money, how about how Bush has spent more money than every president before him combined! What he's done to the country and the economy is IMO the greatest crime in American history, and he needs to pay dearly.



Also, while I generally like Campbell, she's full of shit when she says there hasn't been any attacks from independents. I have seen plenty off adds from them that sound almost exactly like Mc Cain's attack adds, and more often they go after Obama over Mc Cain. I'm starting to think Feba was right and that CNN is right-wing but they try to mask it. They sure as hell give Mc Cain more coverage.


On the subject of Campaign Finance reform though, it's never going to happen unless somehow TV adds become magically cheaper. Those are the single greatest money drain on campaigns as air time is ridiculously expensive. Who knows, maybe the internet can change all that in future. The internet was key in Obama's success in the primaries perhaps it will change future elections as well.

[Feba]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Malacite, the problem isn't the money being spent, it's the matter of A- if this is damaging to campaign finance reform, and B- if this is going back on a promise, pledge, or other commitment.

Honestly, you sound like a talking head.

[Caspian]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

The sad fact is without that kind of money I'm not sure he would have been able to fight through all the lies and bull shit of the GOP.
It'd be great if it didn't take this kind of obscene money to run for office, but it only seems like a lot to us.

But he didn't need it, he still has it leftover, and it apparently doesn't take that kind of money to run for office.
Hell, he has an infomercial running in primetime tonight on 3 of the 4 major networks.
Maybe he'll see fit to redistribute his wealth to everyone else.

[Mystiqsoulchild]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

In all honestly I think the LA times should release that video of Obama...I want to see how screwed he looks when or if it comes out. (Just like Joe Biden did on the news when he was asked simple questions lol...) I know that has nothing to do with it, but I still think it should be fair. (sense they have realesed alot of information about Sara Palin) So why not Obama?

[Omni]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

In all honestly I think the LA times should release that video of Obama...I want to see how screwed he looks when or if it comes out. (Just like Joe Biden did on the news when he was asked simple questions lol...) I know that has nothing to do with it, but I still think it should be fair. (sense they have realesed alot of information about Sara Palin) So why not Obama?

Because it has no relevance and it cant even be proven that Ayers was there. Did you even bother reading anything about this story or just saw the headline only?

It was a dinner 5+ years ago, for someone ELSE that Obama attended and maybe maybe not Ayers was there. Even if he was there, it's not like Obama invited him.

[Malacite]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I like the idea of either campaign spending the kind of money that they have. I just think there are far larger concerns at hand when you look at the big picture. Campaign finance reform would be nice but unfortunately I doubt it'll ever happen now.

It's just about putting limits on how much each candidate can spend as the cost of running adds (especially TV adds) is astronomical, plus you need to pay your campaign staff too. There are a lot of factors and it's just not a simple as some people may think.

Mc Cain has a point when he talks about wasteful spending and this election is huge example of that, though not quite in the same sense that he's talking about. It really is a colossal waste of cash to do an election these days. It'd be great if all that money could go to helping out the economy instead.

Call it a necessary evil I suppose =/

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

Well, the big thing to me right now is the $600,000,000 goes well beyond campaign finanace reform.

What Obama's actually doing with this money right now that kinda proves my whole point that I've gone on about in the past - the media is so fucked its not even funny.

So we have this big crash in the economy. Newspapers are trimming down pages due to lack of ad space, networks are scrambling to find advertisers for revenue, even for the advertising draws, like Sports. Websites are faring much, much better, but show me one mainstream gaming site or wiki that doesn't have an Obama ad on it encouraging you to vote early.

Obama hasn't just gone back on campaign finance reform, he's exploiting campaign finance to the fullest. No candidate in history has had this kind of money or opportunity to exploit the media.

And the media is bending right over for Obama. Can't even watch a Dallas Cowboys game or the World Series without Obama being a centerpiece to the experience right now. People watch sports to get away from that kind of stuff, not have politics thrown in thier face - but what can the networks do? They're desparate.

It will pass, that's for sure, but I think we're now witnessing the last desparate gasps of the televised and published media credibility as well as the biggest display of how corrupted campaign financing can actually get. No one should ever have this kind of advantage, ever.

Hell, it shouldn't have taken Ross Perot's money to get into the '92 debates, but tell me that wasn't the case. It was the only reason he was even there. Only color that matters in campaigning is green.

And if you think this kind of money being spent on a campaign is a "lesser issue" I have to question your intelligence. This is where the corruption of our system starts and it affects everything that follows it.

The Obama is one amazing Republican, I'll give him that much. Pity I wanted to vote Democrat this time.

[Malacite]

Re: Campaign Finance Reform: No, he can't

the media is so fucked its not even funny.

I couldn't agree more. You have so many biased networks and anchors these days (I'm looking at YOU Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Bill O' Reily etc) and the people they put on... it's disgusting. It makes me that much sadder that Tim Russert is dead.


There is so much garbage and lies out there it can be very hard to discern the truth, especially with these so called "independent" adds that are allegedly neutral and on the side of the voter (bull fucking shit).


Now, I personally believe Obama because he's inspiring and I've read his books and his plans on his website before he and HRC really started duking it out as the top 2 contenders. I really believe deep down he's sincere.

Mc Cain on the other hand, while a good guy is surrounded by assholes that rightfully should be exiled from the country (Rove, Palin etc) and I hope for his sake he comes out of this race with at least some dignity.

It's pretty damned obvious if he'd been able to run with Joe Lieberman like he no doubt wanted to (and hadn't been using Bush's people) this race could have been a lot different. Who knows, Mc Cain could possibly even be ahead right now. But the man's been reduced to the usual shady tactics and it's sad.

You know what I think? If he really is a "maverick" as he claims, why the hell didn't he run as an independent? Why not just break away from the Republicans altogether, since he shares viewpoints on both sides? That I think, would have made a very bold and dare I say empowering statement on his part. But, I guess you do what you gotta do to win.