Obama And Campaign Fundraising - No Different Than The Rest Of The Political Class

As most Americans probably know, we are in the midst of a major political election campaign season that has and will seem like it stretches out forever. We are and will be bombarded by political messages, both via news outlets and paid political commercials. And those paid political messages will have to be paid somehow, which brings us to today's discussion.

Many of my Democrat friends like to point out that President Obama is somehow different than past Presidential candidates. That his campaign in 2008 was mostly funded by average, everyday Americans donating small amounts of money to help him get elected.

That his campaign reflected the way America should be run politically, average Americans having their voice heard above the special interests that manipulate our politicians and political processes. That the President is a man of the people, not of the lobbyists, PACs, and other moneyed interests. According to a recent Associated Press (AP) report, in 2008 President Obama had always been a big critic of "Washington's pay-for-access privileges."

Of course, we know that is more fluff than fact. Although he probably did get a lot of money from small time donations from individual Americans in 2008, campaign donation records also show that large banks like Goldman Sachs, large companies like Google and Microsoft, and a myriad of other large special interest groups donated millions and millions of dollars to his campaign in order to win favor and have a say in any Presidential decisions, policies, and strategies.

And his thirst for big time bucks and the influence it buys continues unabated as we lead up to the November, 2012 Presidential election. According to recent Associated Press reports:

• A March 28, 2012 AP article, "Obama Rolls Out White House Red Carpet for Big Donors," described how wealthy individuals that contribute to Obama election campaigns get privileged access to White House events and personnel.
• The article documented how more than 60 of Obama's biggest campaign donors have visited the White House hundreds of times for meetings with Obama top advisers, holiday parties or state dinners.
• Thirty of his biggest donors were invited to the recent state dinner for Britain's Prime Minister.
• According to the AP, "the President (has) embraced the big-money, fundraising groups he once assailed as a "threat to democracy" on grounds they corrode elections by permitting unlimited and effectively anonymous donations from billionaires and corporations. Obama was once so vocal about super PACs that, during his 2010 State of the Union speech, he accused the Supreme Court in its 2010 decision in the Citizens United case of reversing a century of law that would 'open the floodgates for special interests.'"
• Top donors to the Obama Super PAC include Chicago investment manager John W. Rogers Jr. and Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who each gave more than $150,000.
• Spielberg has gotten White House access many times including an invitation to a Rose Garden event and a private movie showing with the First Family in the White House.
• Rogers' donations are also interesting and point out a severe conflict of interest since the AP reports: "Rogers was selected by the administration in October 2010 to head a financial advisory council, and visited the White House more than two dozen times since Obama took office, including one-on-one meetings with former chief of staff William Daley and Jarrett, Obama's senior adviser. Two weeks before Rogers' contribution in January, Obama's campaign paid his firm, Ariel Investments, $600 for "event site rental." Quid pro quo?
• Lenny Mendonca, a director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., gave $50,000 to an Obama Super PAC and received access to top Obama advisors.
• Bill Maher has donated a million dollars to an Obama Super PAC, money that the President has not asked to be returned despite Maher's public, disgraceful and border line pornographic public comments about Republicans that contribute heavily to the sour political class divisions in this country.
• One of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffet, has hosted at least one fund raising dinner for Obama where the cost of attending was in the tens of thousands of dollars, certainly out of the financial reach of "average" Americans.
• These "dinners for access" events for the President's campaign have occurred many times in the past year with one of them costing attendees a whopping $70,000 to attend.
• In early March, First Lady Michelle Obama attended a fundraiser in North Carolina that cost $100,000 per couple to get access.The fundraising event included a dinner with the First Lady, a performance by singer James Taylor, and a photo with the First Lady, reports www.newsobserver.com.

If the typical American household has an average household income of under $60,000, how many "average" Americans do you think got invited to the recent White House state dinner?

How many "average" Americans ever got access and a briefing from top Obama's White House advisors?

How many "average" Americans were invited to the Warren Buffet's dinner for the President?

How many "average" Americans got invited to the the First Lady's fundraising event in North Carolina?

How many "average" Americans get appointed to a White House financial advisory council after making a campaign donation?

How many "average" Americans get to a Rose Garden event or share a movie with the First Family?

I think we know the answers to all of the above questions and that answer is none. This President, despite the hype and fluff, is just as bad and just as corrupted by big money as any other American politician. He has and will receive campaign money from corporations, unions, PACs, Super PACs, lobbyists, and wealthy Americans just like any other politician.

Which is why several steps from "Love my Country, Loathe My Government" are urgently needed to fix this pervasive and perverted problem of money in politics:

1. Step 6 would allow only individual Americans to contribute to election campaigns. When the Founding Fathers granted us freedom of speech, I do not believe that they had corporations, unions, PACs, and lobbyists in mind, only individual Americans. This step would restore freedom and democracy to "average" Americans and remove the overwhelming influence of organizational money form our politics.
2. Step 7 would allow individuals to contribute money only to politicians that serve them, e.g. someone in Kansas could not contribute to a New Jersey politician's campaign.
3. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done," to eliminate the influence peddling and buying that politicians do with wealthy campaign donors in order to continue their incumbency.

As this campaign season progresses, and the President and other candidates proclaim they are the candidate of the "average" American, remember that you probably have not been invited to the White House for being average, you have not had meetings with White House personnel for being average, and you have not been invited to a $30,000 political dinner for being average.

Until the country implements the three steps listed above, you and I are nothing but a vote to Obama and the rest of the political class, a vote that means little after the election when it comes to resolving the issues we "average" people face everyday.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:




http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/