Can you break this hope? I need some change
In what may be a first for Barack Peep And The Big Wide World Obama, he has embraced the free market:
Barack Obama chose winning over his word.
The Democrat once made a conditional agreement to accept taxpayer money from the public financing system, and accompanying spending limits, if his Republican opponent did, too.
No more.
The chance to financially swamp John McCain — and maneuver for an enormous general election advantage — proved too great an allure.
Obama, a record-shattering fundraiser, reversed course Thursday and decided to forgo some $85 million so he could raise unlimited amounts of money and spend as much as he wants.
I take it as good news. I mean, here I thought Barack Who Farted? Obama was kind of a socialist because he’d never seen a place where government funding or meddling or control was bad. Now, he’s opted for the free market route. Well, regulated market. But, you know, it’s better. Maybe there is hope(change).
June 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
You do realize the whole middle thing is not funny and rather obnoxious and immature, right?
Because I sure as hell don’t.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I’d love to dig up some totally unbiased news stories from eight years ago about George W. Bush’s money raising campaign machine (you know, the ones with layers of editorial oversight), and contrast them with how the press is going to handle this.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
The NY Times criticized him, the Associated Press criticized him, David Brooks and a whole host of others criticized him…but hey, the “double standard” MEME works, so run with it anyway.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Criticizing is one thing. Treating it like the end of the world and demanding something be done about it is another. Aspousing the “get the money out of politics” political theories of the Marxist ilk is yet another. No, this is a whole different subject right now.
I’m wonder what John Campaign Finance Reform (a.k.a. Operation Destroy First Amendment) McCain is thinking about his “get the money out of politicss” crusade right now. How ya likin’ it John Boy? You’re facing a whole lotta Change right now, and it ain’t chump Change. It’s Change you can believe in.
Consider how Campaign Finance Reform (I heard this on the radio this morning, but I forget who said it) now means that only the well-connected can run for high office. I mean, before, you could run if you were poor and knew only a couple of rich people who would support you. But not any more. Nope, you have to be an insider with party higher-up connections.
The eeevil Ann Coulter did a pretty good job of covering this:
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter022108.php3
June 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Not something like being an obvious scumbag is going to make one obama groupie consider who they are supporting for president. It proves leftists only care about victory.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
What’s so surprising? He’s a free market capitalist when it directly benefits him. The rest of the time he’s still a socialist.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Mike,
Isn’t that the definition of a leftist? One standard for me and another for thee. I’ve always boggled at the far Left’s proclaiming to hate capitalist ideas, consider the rich evil but yet, many fall into the very category they hate and made their money the same way through the free market. If it is so evil, why did they avail themselves of those mechanisms to get ahead?
Oops, I forgot: Because they believe in doing “good” with your money rather than do good with “their” money. It is the intent that counts, not the means.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
There are three ugly aspects to the Barack ‘Mugabe’ Obama reversal on public financing, one of which seems to have been ignored so far. Everyone has noted how Obama has blatantly broken faith on public financing; pretty clearly Obama’s pledges are worthless. Also noted is the flimsy and false excuse that big-bad Republican 527 groups are the reason for Obama breaking his word, when everyone knows that Democratic 527 groups are already active and anticipated to bury any Republican efforts in terms of money just as they did in the 2004 election.
What has not been noted is Obama’s desired ‘fix’ for the “broken” campaign finance system — the silencing of independent political speech! Just goes to show how Obama has as little respect for fundamental 1st amendment political speech rights as he does for other fundamental rights such as the right to keep and bear arms.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Sean Braisted Says:
Jeeze, I didn’t say he would not be criticized, I wanted to compare what the papers said at the time to what they are saying now. A good Google date-range search should pull up the relevant data, but most news outlets yank their stories off the freely accessible net after a few months. I have done some initial searches, and my google-fu is mighty, but I haven’t pulled up much yet.
Julian date search using an unsupported feature in Google
Also, if I recall correctly, Bush eight years ago never pledged to accept public financing and limits to donations. Barack “extra heapin’ helpin’ of hypocrisy” Obama did, and went back on his word.
Here’s the softball press release from Common Cause, a lobbying group that wants to limit free speech (campaign contributions) while forcing elections to be financed with public money, all in the name of saving the Republic. Edwards and Obama were their little darlings early this season.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:12 am
Shit, I should have said to RTWT. The softball treatment continues with:
So read the whole thingy.