Obama Breaks Campaign Pledge on Public Financing

Brainster

Penultimate Amazing
Brainster
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Most political candidates wait until after they are elected to break their campaign promises, so it appears that Obama really is a different kind of politician:

Senator Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he would not participate in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He argued that the system had collapsed, and would put him at a disadvantage running against Senator John McCain, his likely Republican opponent.

With his decision, Mr. Obama became the first candidate of a major party to decline public financing — and the spending limits that go with it — since the system was created in 1976, after the Watergate scandals.
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This is contrary to a pledge he made last November (although the New York Times is too biased to mention that in their article).

In November 2007, Obama answered "Yes" to Common Cause when asked "If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?"

Obama wrote: "In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. 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. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
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So whom does Obama blame for this? Them evil Republicans!

"We've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election," Obama says in the video, blaming it on the need to combat Republicans, saying "we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system. John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations."
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I guess this changed since November, eh, Hopey? Or, more likely, what's changed is that you realized you could raise more money over the internet. I'm sure his rationalizations will play well with his supporters; the question is how independents will greet the news.

Barack Obama: Change you can donate to.
 
Obama spokesman Bill Burton is blaming Senator John McCain's campaign for failing, he says, to negotiate in good faith on a course to public financing.

"In the past couple of weeks, our campaign counsels met and it was immediately clear that McCain's campaign had no interest in the possibility of an agreement," Burton said. "When asked about the RNC's months of raising and spending for the general election, McCain's campaign could only offer its expectation that the Obama campaign would probably, sooner or later, catch up. And shortly thereafter, Senator McCain signaled to the 527s that they were free to run wild, without objection."
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Linky.

Apparently some Obama and McCain lawyers met to talk about financing and Obama's people were unimpressed, reporting zero results.
 
Brainster, brainster, brainster.....

Back when he made that pledge, he didn't expect to actually win. You can't hold him to that now. Plus, he has lots of _excuses_ that I want to believe in. After all, keeping your word should be contingent on what other people do.


Edited to Add: I could care less how he finances. He owes me no apologies. I think he should do whatever it takes to win.
 
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McCain being in violation of the public financing laws right now, he's got a lot of room to talk.
 
I'm having a hard time figuring this out, Brainster. Obama has decided not to take government money, and this bothers you? Would it bother you if McCain also decided not to take government money? Do you actually have an issue with this decision?

Or is it because he liiiiiiiiieeeeeeed.:eye-poppi
 
Brainster said:
... I'm sure his rationalizations will play well with his supporters; the question is how independents will greet the news. ...
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Given that he's not taking money from the Government, I think it might play well with many, including Republicans that abhor such things.
 
Pookster said:
Given that he's not taking money from the Government, I think it might play well with many, including Republicans that abhor such things.
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It's a separate account; this is not money that comes out of general funds available. I suppose it is possible that if more candidates opt out of the system eventually the money could be refunded back to the general account. But this is not saving taxpayers any money at present. Indeed, since taxpayers can deduct their contributions to candidates from their income taxes, it is quite likely (given the amounts that Obama's campaign team is talking about raising) that this will be a net drain on the US Treasury.

ETA: The tax deductible part is wrong. My mistake.
 
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From the article that Brainster quoted:

With his decision, Mr. Obama became the first candidate of a major party to decline public financing — and the spending limits that go with it — since the system was created in 1976, after the Watergate scandals.
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I guess Obama really does plan to take us back to the days of Carter. :D
 


The first major ad Obama will be running with the public financing system of hundreds of thousands of Americans contributing voluntarily to his campaign.
 
What promise was broken, specifically?

I don't see a promise to use the public funds.

I do see a promise to work with McCain to come to an agreement on financing, "agressively pursue" if you will.

Apparently there was a meeting between Obama's and McCain's people that resulted in this not being possible.

I really don't see the issue. (Now if he scratched his face while making the announcement...)
 
Brainster,

You misread it totally.

He is staying within the financing LIMITATIONS, but NOT taking public money.

A much more ethical stance than taking the public's money in my opinion.

I'd think a fiscal conservative would applaud that stance.

-Ben
 
Brainster said:
It's a separate account; this is not money that comes out of general funds available. I suppose it is possible that if more candidates opt out of the system eventually the money could be refunded back to the general account. But this is not saving taxpayers any money at present. Indeed, since taxpayers can deduct their contributions to candidates from their income taxes, it is quite likely (given the amounts that Obama's campaign team is talking about raising) that this will be a net drain on the US Treasury.
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So, you advocate that Obama take money from the Government?
 
Obama's clearly backpedaling. He had no idea he could raise so much private small-donor money when he made that pledge, so now he's trying to spin his decision to forgo public financing as a principled reversal.

If the source of the bulk of his fundraising was anything other than small private donors, this might have an impact on how people view him. As it stands, though, the main thing he is guilty of is failing to see how popular he'd be.
 
BenBurch said:
Brainster,

You misread it totally.

He is staying within the financing LIMITATIONS, but NOT taking public money.

A much more ethical stance than taking the public's money in my opinion.

I'd think a fiscal conservative would applaud that stance.

-Ben
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I can't find where he says this. Can you quote it?
 
chipmunk stew said:
Obama's clearly backpedaling. He had no idea he could raise so much private small-donor money when he made that pledge, so now he's trying to spin his decision to forgo public financing as a principled reversal.

If the source of the bulk of his fundraising was anything other than small private donors, this might have an impact on how people view him. As it stands, though, the main thing he is guilty of is failing to see how popular he'd be.
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I agree. I don't know that he ever "pledged" to stay with public financing either. Maybe there is a quote out there that shows different. He certainly clearly indicated his intent to though. But, it wasn't like he said "read my lips: no new taxes".
 
And thus ODS was born.
I'm glad someone else will have at it turn for a while. Please keep it up.
 
Obama broke a pledge ... to try to agree with the other candidate ... who didn't agree ... and has already indicated he won't agree ... and who took a loan promising to use public financing ... and then broke that promise ... and Obama somehow is wrong.

Got it.
 
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