Saturday, June 21, 2008

Change...a Lot of It

Barack Obama promised change. And he is now going to have to raise a lot of it. Obama became the first major presidential candidate since I was six years old to decline public financing of his campaign. The New York Times catches you up on your history on this. Obama will now have to raise his own cash. I don't believe Obama fully promised to go the taxpayer route when he talked about this earlier in the campaign. But I think it's safe to say many people expected him to. John McCain has apparently decided to stick with public financing. Now I guess we'll see just how good Obama's internet-driven, money-raising machine is. Here's how Obama explains it to his supporters:

Dave --
Since we announced our decision not to accept taxpayer funds for the general election, tens of thousands of people like you have come forward to declare their independence from a broken system. This decision frees us to build a movement of millions of people giving whatever they can afford to a campaign that is truly reforming the way our political process works. It also frees us to take our campaign for change to parts of the country where Democratic presidential candidates haven't spent too much time in the past.

Our first television ad of the general election season goes on the air today.
Sure, we're on the air in places like Ohio and Florida, the typical battleground states. But we're also on the air in North Dakota, Montana, and Alaska -- places that have emerged as competitive because of the unprecedented grassroots energy supporting our campaign. These ads are supporting a 50-state ground operation that is being built right now by staff, volunteers, and thousands of Obama Organizing Fellows. But we have our work cut out for us, and we need to grow this movement. Right now, you can declare your independence and help us run a campaign that is funded by the people and for the people.
If you make your first donation today, a fellow supporter is standing by to match your gift and double your impact. You can even choose to exchange a note with them and share why you are supporting this campaign.
Add your voice to our movement by making a matching donation now:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
Choosing not to accept these taxpayer funds was not an easy decision. I remain committed to fundamental campaign finance reform, and as president I will work to fix this broken system. But we're facing opponents who have become masters at gaming the broken system as it stands today -- collecting money from Washington lobbyists, special interest PACs, and relying on so-called 527 groups that can take unlimited contributions to peddle lies and smears. We have chosen to do things differently.


My Cardinals lose three straight to Kansas City. Then, they win the first two against Boston??? This season makes no sense. None at all.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't change Washington without eliminating the influence of the special interests. John McCain received over $650,000 from federal lobbyists and over $700,000 from executives in the oil & gas industry. The McCain campaign has received nearly $1,000,000 from political action committees (PACs). Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has refused to accept contributions from special interest lobbyists and PACs since the beginning of the campaign.

Nearly 50% of John McCain’s donors contributed $2,300 or more to his presidential campaign in comparison to less than 30% of Barack Obama’s donors. Nearly 50% of Barack Obama’s donors contributed $200 or less in comparison to less than 25% of John McCain’s.

When it comes to the Washington power game, we need to stop trading access for big money. If you defend the system that defeats change, you can’t be the person who will, in fact, bring change.

Anonymous said...

Since Obama's letter/email (whatever it was) was addressed to Dave, is it safe to assume that DP is an Obama supporter?

Dave Price said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Price said...

No, you can't assume I'm an Obama guy. You'll notice other emails to supporters from Clinton and McCain are also addressed to "Dave".

Anonymous said...

We can’t change Washington without eliminating the influence of the special interests. Lobbyists are people who are paid specifically to turn money into access and to disproportionately influence our elected officials in Congress.

Lobbyists manipulate our elected officials and, in some cases, write laws. Lobbyist money is equivalent to institutionalized corruption.

John McCain should reject contributions from lobbyists and political action committees.

We have lost what our forefathers fought so gallantly for. We no longer have government by the people and for the people.