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October 19, 2008

How to buy the presidency

Rick Moran
"Change and Hope" translated means "I am changing the fundraising game forever," and "I sure hope all these donations are legal."

From CNN:

Barack Obama's campaign announced Sunday the Democratic presidential candidate raised $150 million in donations in September, setting a new high-water mark in campaign fundraising.


In a campaign video, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said a record 632,000 new donors gave to the campaign, with the average contribution under $100. More than 3 million donors have given so far.

The Obama campaign raised $65 million in August.

Regardless of the stunning haul, Plouffe told supporters the campaign still needed more money because of "the slime that we're getting from the McCain campaign." Plouffe cited recent attack ads and automated phone calls in battleground states and said the campaign needed to have every resource to "fight back."

"Their campaign is going to descend even more into the gutter," he said.

Plouffe also said the campaign was expanding its reach to compete "aggressively" in West Virginia.

Tightening polls in Georgia and North Dakota meant more money and resources could be sent to those two states in the remaining days, he said.

"We can't afford to make any cuts. We have to execute everything we think is required to win," Plouffe said of their battleground strategy. "None of us can look back on the night of November 4 or the morning of November 5 and wished we had done something extra."


Not one story on Obama's record haul mentioned the total amount Obama has raised and spent in the primary and general election campaigns in order to be elected President of the United States.

Not one.

Not CNN.

Not the AP.

Not AFP.

Not Reuters.

Not Bloomberg.

Not Time Magazine.

Not the Washington Post.

Not the New York Times.

Not The Hill.

Not Politico.

I managed to find this Newsmax piece from September 29th that gives a number for Obama's total fundraising. I cannot speak to the accuracy or provenance of this number. But it sounds about right.

More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose.


And questions have arisen about millions more in foreign donations the Obama campaign has received that apparently have not been vetted as legitimate.


Obama has raised nearly twice that of John McCain's campaign, according to new campaign finance report.

That $427 million was before September's haul of $150 million. That means that, if the number is accurate, Barack Obama has raised  $577 million - more than half a billion dollars - to buy himself a presidency.

About half of that - $269 million - is from donations of under $200. Why is that important? Those donations do not have to be individually reported to the FEC. They could be coming from anywhere - including overseas. We are trusting that the Obama campaign is voluntarily following the law and returning donations that are illegal - including those that exceed the $2300 limit for individuals.

No word from the Obama campaign, from the FEC, or from anyone else whether that is being done or not. How much has been returned? What safeguards do they have in place to assure that the donations are on the up and up?

Wouldn't those be some interesting questions to ask the campaign?

Posted at 10:58 AM | Email | | | Share Share
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