Posted by
Always To The Right on Saturday, August 16, 2008 2:50:33 PM
Can anyone remember a reform pledge Barack Obama hasn’t
broken? First, he insisted that he would remain within the
public-financing system, as late as February, then suddenly pronounced
it “broken” when Obama didn’t want to stay within its spending limits.
Next, his campaign went “negative” first against John McCain when he
had pledged to eschew such advertising. Now Barack Obama and his team
have begun raising millions of dollars in “soft money” from unions and PACstwo months ago
despite his sanctimonious depredation of such donations just
Oh, okay, I get it — principles are essential only when one doesn’t
need cash. Otherwise, the principles go right out the door, along with
promises, and especially the sanctimony. For a taste of that
sanctimony, watch his announcement on June 5th of this year:
The Democratic National Committee will uphold the same
standard: We will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists or special
interest PACs. … They will not fund my party!
Unless we need the money.
Who did Obama call to “fund his party”?
- The SEIU, to get another $500,000
- AFSCME, which refused to donate more
- American Federation of Teachers
In addition, the Los Angeles Times reports that the move to Invesco
Field may be more about hauling in soft money than creating great
optics. Obama’s speech will allow the DNC to sell Invesco’s private
boxes for a cool $1 million each, which they need to raise more money
to cover the cost of the convention. The DNCC had already reserved the
Pepsi Center’s luxury boxes for other purposes. Even with all of these
new sell-out opportunities provided by Team Obama, the DNCC remains
over $11 million short of their goals with nine days left.
The man who claims the reform mantle has not just repeatedly reneged
on those promises, Obama has now commercialized his own acceptance
speech to get money from the special interests and lobbyists against
whom he inveighed in June. Barack Obama seems determined to redefine
the term “hypocrite” in 2008.