Barack Obama, Fundraising Badass
Posted by Mike | December 5, 2008 | |
Will Barack Obama’s enormous success raising money affect the left’s stance on campaign finance reform (CFR)? The argument for campaign finance reform is simple and intuitive: None of us want to live in a world where government is sold to the highest bidder and CFR is an attempt to keep this from happening.
Only there are a couple problems. First, campaigns cost money. And if you are a challenger trying to knock off a 10-year incumbent, it’s going to cost you a small fortune. Limiting how much challengers can raise from individuals effectively limits the ability for challenger to defeat incumbents, leading to less competition in the system as a whole.
This is a chart of reelection rates. Yes, you’re reading it right. In 2006, a pivotal swing election, 94% of US representatives kept their jobs.
The other problem is that politicians, by their nature, seek to whore themselves out to the highest bidder. Despite our best efforts at restricting them, they will always find a way. I suppose they are good at something. When we support campaign finance restrictions, more often than not, we’re disarming ourselves.
So, while I agree with the sentiment behind campaign finance restrictions, in practice I am convinced it does no good and, in fact, may do harm.
Now back to Obama, it is fitting that the biggest fundraiser in history is a man who is on the record supporting and Campaign Finance Reform and whose party virtually invented it. Now the press and the Obama campaign are going to try and spin this glut of money as a massive infusion of small donors into the system. This myth is repeated in the Tribune’s coverage today. The reality is that a mere 26% of the $770 million Barack Obama raised came from donors who gave $200 or less, while 47% came from those who gave $1000 or more.
You can see from the chart below that this doesn’t differ substantially from the trend.
So the question is, can the left really oppose a system from which they have so clearly profited? Or will they recognize that private financing of campaign enabled them to win this election comfortably. Without the money advantage it’s not clear Obama would even have won the primary. We shouldn’t criticize Obama for this success. But we should ask him not to make it any harder on future challengers to rise from nowhere and beat an incumbent president.
Tags: Barack Obama > Campaign Finance Reform > Campaigns > challenger > Competition > donors > fundraiser > Government > President
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December 5th, 2008 @ 9:24 am
I encourage those who are interested in the subject of free speech to read the book “The Shadow University” by Kors and Silverglate. Obama will support speech restrictions like CFR (campaign finance reform), because those restrictions are necessary for the people to accept socialism. People who are not gagged don’t make very good slaves.
Of course, Obama is in favor of both CFRs(CFR usually = Council on Foreign Relations)! He is, because he wants the power, and the bankers decide who gets to be president anyway. The “PACs” elect the president, and individualists can’t compete in the arena of “setting up PACs”. ..When they can, there will be a new rule.
America went socialist/communist in 1913, with the Creation of the Federal Reserve, but “socialist” is not a good label, however true. People have a lot of trouble learning new words, and thinking critically on the subject of politics, so perhaps the best word comes from our past: tyrant. America is a land of tyranny, not a land of the free. We are ruled by tyrants, in both bureaucracies and titles of false authority.
I strongly recommend “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve” and “World Without Cancer” by G. Edward Griffin. Once you’ve read those books, I recommend “Unintended Consequences” by John Ross. At some point, you should also join Freedom Force International, in case the LP fails to teach US citizens a new word.
-Jake
December 5th, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Obama raised the money for one other reason (besides the compound reason listed above, under “power”): …he is black. Instinctively, people believe that a black man cannot continue racist enforcement of prohibition (of guns and drugs, etc…), but lack the balls, brains, and political philosophy to formulate that opinion into words. So they conform, and pull the lever for a black socialist prohibitionist of the worst stripe. LOL.
The Libertarian Party could have had all that money if they had been first to run a black candidate. (And yeah, I know, no racism means no “reverse majoritarian” racism, but nonetheless, do you want to live or die as a political entity?) Heck, they could have run Russell Means, in 1988! (Although there is the problem that RM has recently been appealing to the UN for help for the Lakota Nation, which is divisive to the freedom movement he is trying to build.)
Imagine Obama as a young white man or woman. Would he have gotten this far on marxist platitudes? Nope. John Edwards sure didn’t. But he’s black, and you don’t want to look like a racist, do you? (Nevermind the ideas outlined in “The Audacity of Hope”, very few people read it anyway. If they had read it, maybe they would want to focus on the part where Obama says “we’ve outgrown capitalism” and that “although capitalism gave us the industrial revolution, times have changed, and now it doesn’t really apply to our modern society” LOL. I guess the fundamental laws of economics have changed too! “Hope and Change, Comrades!”)
Obama in 2012! Let’s really pick up the pace in slaughtering these free-range cattle called “US taxpayers”!
January 21st, 2009 @ 7:01 am
thanks bloog
January 27th, 2009 @ 10:55 am
What about Ron Paul
He had record fund raising. I think both sides need to learn from this guy.
February 19th, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
It don’t really matter how much Barack Obama spent on his fund raiser because i know theres more people that spent more. so we shouldn’t be judging him.
March 30th, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
I think he has shown that we must be able to raise our own funds, and yes, the simple fact was that the seat went to the highest bidder, which depended on having the highest paying backers. no more. If he does not owe the bankers anything, he can finally start to deal with them and other institutions.
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