Korean Job Discussion Forums

[On the other hand]

My understanding, admittedly gleaned from mostly right-wing sources, is that Obama originally agreed to exclusively public financing of his campaign, and that McCain also agreed to a similar arrangement for his own campaign at the same time. Then, Obama broke the deal, and announced that he'd eschew public funding, thus allowing him to use his substantial reserve of private funding. But McCain stuck to his end of the pledge(ie. he used only public funds), and as a result was significantly outspent by Obama.

That's my understanding anyway. One thing I'm not clear about is why Obama had all this private money raised, if his original stated position was to refuse private funding. Why were people sending him money when he had already announced that he wasn't going to use it? Where would all that private money have gone to if he had stuck to public funding?

Furthermore, once Obama broke his end of the deal, why didn't McCain do the same, and switch to private funds as well? That would have put him on a more even footing with Obama. Is McCain so honorable that he couldn't back down on his word, even after Obama had?

And is anyone worried that this will screw up the campaign finance system that's been in place since 1976? I would think that the Republicans are now likely to switich to private funding as well, thus increasing the influence of private money over the campaign process.

[laogaiguk]

There is actually a lot of things Obama did that people conveniently forgot about. Still, I think he was a better choice for America than McCain/Palin, assuming he chooses good advisors.

[sharkey]

get off the obama hate train

[Gopher]

It is true that B. Obama's campaign vastly outspent J. McCain's campaign. It does not represent "an Obama hate train" to point this out.

As far as the rest of your question goes, On the Other Hand: all is fair in love and war. Barack Obama fought a good war. There is only one way to evaluate and judge this: he won.

And I agree that the Republicans will likely follow the precedent in 2010 and 2012. But as someone who leans toward realist politics when interpreting global and American affairs, I do not really see what you see when you identify and question B. Obama's shifting positions on this (and other things).

I do not think we can fault him for being a politician who wanted to and then did in fact win, then. I only fault some of his supporters for selling him as the Messiah and refusing to see this (and other things)...

[Tiger Beer]

I really should research how Obama raised his money, but there was something interesting connected to that, in a positive way.

Something that if you REJECT PUBLIC FUNDING (basically gobs and gobs of money that it is unheard of to reject, but puts restrictions on your additional private sources if you do). Anyways, Obama REJECTED it, and therefore didn't get it, but strategically an incredible move as it opened him up to ALL private contributions, (or dumbly dependent upon it).

I think they key with this one is you have to have heavy support to be risky enough to reject public funding. But Obama did it, and it really paid off.

[Hater Depot]

The thing is that even though Obama raised tons of cash, he did it without relying on the big donors who would gain influence by bundling the contributions of others. When your average donor gives under $100 and you don't rely at all on PAC money, nobody is really buying themselves any meaningful influence. So while it probably does spell the end of the public financing regime, the new model could be better.

[bacasper]

Obama agree to public funding while he still thought he would not raise so much money. Once it became apparent he could get more by renouncing it, he conveniently rejected it, just as any other opportunist politician would.

[pkang0202]

The minute McCain went to private funds, the Media would jump on it like hungry wolves.

[bucheon bum]

[Kikomom]

There is a way to look at public funding that could have resulted in one more divisive racial issue than some would like to admit. Accepting public funding would give those voters at the McCain/Palin rallies reacting to the 'palling around with terrorists/middle name Hussein' cries to make the claim that their tax monies were being used to fund the {associated with} terrorist. The people who donated to the Obama campaign and supported the candidate never believed this nonsense of course. But face it, some republican voters certainly did.

In the end, it would have enabled those who did believe the nonsense that was being generated both inside and outside of the McCain campaign the excuse to rationalize more discontent that their tax dollars had helped the opposition they vehemently detested.

Instead, the democratic base provided all the finance he needed without having to accept funds from those who could, at a later date, decry the use of their tax dollars.

One more thing to blame on the haters. But that was short-circuited by the DNC's refusal to accept public funding.

[Jandar]

[bucheon bum]

[Fishead soup]

Once in power Obama will force us all to wear turbans

[bangbayed]

[Milwaukiedave]