Obama's campaign isn't as grass roots as he'd like us to believe:
That picture differs substantially from the image offered by Obama of a campaign directed by grassroots activists. Their money clearly doesn't do the talking. Bundlers direct the campaign, quite literally, and those bundlers represent moneyed interests -- a much different reality than what Obama and his advocates admit.
As someone who opposes most campaign-finance reform efforts as misguided and harmful to free speech, I don't find anything particularly objectionable to this structure. It fits within the legal parameters of campaigning, and it mirrors every other major campaign in American national elections. However, Barack Obama has argued for campaign finance reform and for public funding of presidential elections. His rejection of that money doesn't come from any high-minded sense of civic duty; it's a threadbare rationalization for succumbing to what he himself campaigns against -- the Beltway mentality.
In short, Obama's principles are up for sale. He may make a better pitch than most, but in the end he's just a higher-price sellout than most others. That's not hope or change, but simply hypocrisy on a bigger scale.
I'm sure that this is that new politics that we've been hearing so much about.
A Democrat who's a hypocrite? I hope Jim Harris doesn't find out, he'll be crushed.
So Obama is a politician. The first clue as to his branding should have been his Chicago roots. Always a hotbed of strange and interesting political activities - legal and otherwise.
Obama is just a machine politician with a little more polish and gloss. His interest is in power not change. Rest assured that little is going to change except his bank balance.
Cynical, you bet, not much good has ever come out of politics.
One half of the money Obama has raised comes from donors contributing less than $100.00.
No other candidate even comes close.
"Anonymous wrote:
One half of the money Obama has raised comes from donors contributing less than $100.00.
No other candidate even comes close."
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
Thomas Tusser
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
Thomas Tusser
I'm sure Mr. Puckett is talking about what George Bush has done to America's money.
Hey Andy, I'm unclear: are you against having democratic elections? Or are you just against having government of any kind? I'd say a lot of good has come out of (elective, democratic) politics, like, for example, the United States of America, and a lot of good people have died defending your right to go vote. So phooey on your cynicism! :-)
This has been a public service message from a member of the Democratic Party.
"I'm sure Mr. Puckett is talking about what George Bush has done to America's money."
No, I was talking about the fools who waste good money on the audacity of hype. The fool who just said this at a fundraiser:
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."