ATLANTA – In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August, John McCain declared “We are ALL Georgians Now,” expressing solidarity with the Georgian people in light of Russian aggression. Separately, In various stump speeches and debates he has said that when he looks into Vladimir Putin’s eyes, he sees, “KGB!” John McCain’s stance on Russia and Russian aggression has been clear and forceful throughout the campaign. Yet in the wake of Mr. Obama revealing he had raised over $150 million for his campaign in September, the McCain Campaign has been desperately trying to close the fund raising gap. Evidently, this led them to inadvertantly send a letter to the Russian UN Mission, requesting funds. Ha! That’s hilarious- one of the funniest gaffes of the campaign in my mind. Clearly a computer mistake, but funny nonetheless.
What is not funny is that Barack Obama kicked campaign finance reform in the teeth back when he opted out of the public financing system back in June. The public financing system was established in the wake of the Watergate scandal to try and take excessive money and undue political influence out of politics. Declaring the system bankrupt, Mr. Obama decided to rely on his army of “small donors” instead. I actually would have made the same decision if I were Mr. Obama, at that point in time. My only complaint about his decision then was that it was a 180 degree turn-around from promises he had made just 6 months before and from his previous efforts in the Senate to reform money in politics.
However, I am suddently finding the massive amount of money he has raised now to be very scary . I thought he would raise $45-50 million per month in September and October. Raising $150 million in September alone is absolutely daunting. Who is paying him all this money? It surely is not the “working poor” he supposedly is here to help. I’ve got to imagine it is big corporate bundlers and vast, unspecified special interests.
My prediction is that one of the first “scandals” of an Obama Administration will be the revelation of just who financed this ground-breaking campaign. Will we be pleasantly surprised or shocked to find out?
Having never been a supporter of “campaign finance” reform in the past, this election cycle may be changing my mind. The unbelieve gobs of money that have been thrown at Barack Obama are absolutely frightening. Not simply because they will likely allow him to best my preferred choice in this election. But moreso because they are so “shadowy,” so unkown. Who financed this landslide?
Let me know your thoughts. Do you like that Mr. Obama was able to raise so much? Does having 3+ million contributors out of a possible 150+ million total voting population (2%) make Mr. Obama’s contributing base a broad enough representation of the electorate for him to justify chucking public financing?
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
Obama impressed ME enough to contribute $500 and I am 70 years old, retired living on a fixed income.
Gasdocpol: Appreciate you reading and visiting the site. And I respect your choice. Admittedly, the above contemplations are just off the cuff speculation of mine and are not based on any hard evidence of exactly who is giving to the Obama campaign. The money he has raised relative to John McCain really has no bearing on my voting decision.
I can understand your being impressed by Mr. Obama – he is young, articulate and inspirational to millions (both here and abroad). At times, that is tempting enough to me to vote for him.
But my hangups on Obama remain his vast inexperience, his economic policies (which I think tilt too far to the left and could exacerbate inflation and cramp growth) and his leftwing views on social issues, such as abortion.
Despite all his soaring and inspirational rhetoric, I can’t get past these things. I think he will ultimately be a disappointment to a lot of people.
But obviously, I could be totally wrong- we’ll see in 4 to 8 years (if he gets elected and if he serves 2 terms). And I welcome your disagreement! Perhaps you can take these issues and pursuade me otherwise.
Thanks again for dropping by!
http://americanmissive.com/2008/10/19/what-barack-obama-herbert-hoover-and-warren-harding-may-have-in-common/
You might be interested to read my recent missive concerning my perspectives on Mr. Obama’s experience.
Perhaps someone can give me a definitive answer. I’ve always been under the impression politicians can keep any campaign funds they don’t spend for their personal use. Does anybody know if this is true or not?
JustShowsToGoYa: That’s a good question and I’ll look into it and see what I can find. I’m leaning towards no though as I seem to recall some scandals breaking out about campaign funds during the Gray Davis days in California. I could be “misremembering” though.
JustShowsToGoYa: It seems pretty complicated. The rules tend to require certain notification and so forth. Limits to when and how they spend. If they don’t spend enough, they must request permission to payoff debts using monies allocated for other portions of a race. For the most part the money can be held for future elections and campaigns. But there also appears to be some loop holes that allow them to create “Foundations” which basically employee a wife or kid allowing them to use the money themselves.
For sources: NYTimes
WikiAnswers
Stephen VanNuys
You said “But my hangups on Obama remain his vast inexperience, his economic policies (which I think tilt too far to the left and could exacerbate inflation and cramp growth) and his leftwing views on social issues, such as abortion.
A. Vast inexperience?
There is a difference between 20 years of experience and one year of expereience 20 times. For example
Jackie Robinson broke 100 the first time he ever played golf.
Stephen VanNuys,
You said: “But my hangups on Obama remain his vast inexperience, his economic policies (which I think tilt too far to the left and could exacerbate inflation and cramp growth) and his leftwing views on social issues, such as abortion.
Experience?
1. There is a difference between 20 years of experience and one year of experience 20 times.
2. Experience to be meaningful, must result in better judgement and ability to do the job.
3. Colin Powell has discussed world affairs at length with both McCain and Obama.Powell has concluded that Obama has the better grasp of things. (For what is worth, I was an officer on board ships at sea for 7 years and practiced critical care medicine for 33 years and have seen the interaction between experience, training,common sense and judgement. I agree with Powell. )
4. Powell said that Obama had the right temperament. Diplomatically he said nothing about McCain’s temperament.
5. It is well known that McCain is superstitious, a compulsive gambler and has an anger management problem. This concerns me.
6. McCain , I submit has never been inclined to understand anything in depth from when he was in the bottom 1% of his class at USNA right up to this very day.
7. His father and grandfather were 4 star admirals and that propelled him in the Navy.
8. His 20 hours in combat and 23 combat missions and 5 1/2 years as a POW somehow has qualified as a war hero and gave him a career in the Senate.
9. He was a commander of a training unit in the Navy where he ostensibly made something go. He had a checkerboard history there.
10. In my opinion, Obama has common sense and is smart and cool.
Experience to be meaningful, must result in better judgement and ability to do the job. Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig have all endorsed McCain. They are all former Secretaries of State.
These attacks on McCain’s military record sound like an amalgam of Kerry/Bush military attacks. Too little time in the military to be a hero (used against Kerry) favortism based on relations (used against Bush). It’s petty, and it’s past. And it’s still in politics. But you are so far the first person I’ve heard say that surviving 5.5 years as a POW isn’t heroic. Come on. That’s some real hard time he went through.
Point number 10 is all you need to state.
Tennesssee Paul
Surviving 5 1/2 years as a POW proves that McCain is a survivor nothing more.(ignoring his admiral father and McCain’s collaboration.) Machine Gun Kelly survived 19 years in prison. That would say something about his character too? ROBERT STROUD (THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ)SURVIVED 54 YEARS IN PRISON. THAT MAY NOT QUALIFY HIM TO BE PRESIDENT BUT IT DOES SHOW US SOMETHING ABOUT HIS CHARACTER?
Haig, Baker et al were all Republicans. They are loyal to the GOP. Powell talked to both Obama and McCain, he was more impressed with Obama enough to “cross the aisle”.
10. In my opinion, Obama has common sense and is smart and cool. McCain is an intellectually lazy, emotionally unstable, superstitious , compusive gambler with an anger management problem.
I’m not sure how one can compare criminals to a POW. McCain served his imprisonment for his country. The men you listed did time for committing violent crimes. There is nothing similar about the comparison.
But aside from that, I said nothing about this being a qualification for Presidency, only that I find it heroic that any man would serve that time for his countrymen. It is something to honor, even if you don’t like the mans politics.
McCain did nothing to help the war effort in being a POW. Mr. Maverick did not follow proceedures when he found he was locked on by a SAM missile. He may have been able to avoid being shot down had he done so. He has admitted that he did give more than his name rank and serial number. Many others were offerd early release and declined. McCain has refused to realease North Vietnamese records of his POW internment.
I do not see any difference in interstinal fortitude required for surviving as a POW from surviving in federal prison.
He may well have collaborated more than he had admitted. His admiral father helped him to survive.
Well I respectfully disagree with your assessment of his well documented and Obama supported Heroism for this country.
Gasdocpol- thanks for posting and for dropping by. Like TP, I will respectfully disagree on the nature of Mr. McCain’s service to our country and his experience relative to Mr. Obama’s.
The additional point I’d like to reemphasize is his economic policy. I know he’s winning on economics right now, b/c people are scared and very angry with republicans. But I’m not sure people are looking at his plan in totality. Combining his positions on union organization, higher taxes on individuals and corporations, taxes on energy consumption, and massive increased spending in health care and other areas may (and I emphasize may) really cramp our economic growth and exacerbate inflation. He’s not putting enough focus on reigning the deficit and promoting pro-market policies, in my opinion. I think America is going to become an expensive place to live over the next 4 years. I’m genuinely worried about it.
Thanks again for dropping by.
McCain’s record is not well documented. As a Senator , he has blocked access to North Vietnamese records.We are forced to accept his version. There is testimony that he gave info that got Americans shot down and he was given prostitutes.
His career in the Senate is mostly based on the myth that he was a war hero.