One has to know it is a new day when republicans are crying foul over campaign contributions. Democratic nominee Barack Obama did an about face and said he will not go the public financing route. Instead Obama will raise money and use it to fund his march to the White House. Republican nominee John McCain has taken the opportunity to cry foul and label Obama a liar. Seems as though Obama’s unprecedented ability to raise money has given Obama an advantage and placed McCain at a heavy disadvantage. This development is something new especially since the GOP has out-fundraised and out-spent the Democratic Party for years. The political spin on this issue is crazy since McCain has a bit of a financing issue himself. Who would have ever predicted Obama would out pace McCain in campaign contributions? I have taken the liberty to publish the email I recieved from the Obama campaign below.
Barack announced an important decision for our campaign today.
I want to add a little context to the video message you received earlier announcing that we will not participate in the public financing system for the general election.
Even though we stood to receive more than $80 million in taxpayer funding for our campaign, the system has been so gamed and exploited by our opponents that it is effectively broken.
John McCain, the Republican National Committee, and their allies in so-called 527 groups that raise and spend unlimited contributions are dedicated to manipulating this broken system to raise as much money as possible — and they’ve proven that they’re very good at it.
A top McCain adviser told MSNBC earlier this month, “now that we’re in the general election, the RNC money counts, the DNC money counts. So the truth is today, John McCain has more cash on hand and more money than Barack Obama does.”
In April alone, they raised nearly $45 million. That’s more than our campaign and the Democratic National Committee combined. And that doesn’t include the plans of 527 groups like the one called “Freedom’s Watch,” which has said it will spend as much as $250 million under Karl Rove’s direction to attack and defeat Barack Obama.
To compete, Barack has put his faith in ordinary people giving only what they can afford. That’s been the strategy of this campaign from the beginning, and more than 1,500,000 supporters like you have gotten us this far.
We have a historic opportunity to prove that a movement of ordinary people has the power to change the way political campaigns are funded. And we have a clear goal as we begin this new challenge: 50,000 people declaring their independence by making a donation before July 4th.
Opting out of public matching funds was an extremely difficult decision, and frankly we are at a disadvantage when it comes to raising money. Unlike John McCain, this campaign has never accepted donations from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs.
While McCain has built his fundraising strategy around high-dollar donors giving huge checks to the RNC, you are creating a new model for publicly financed campaigns.
Thank you for your support and for taking on the masters of a broken system,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
Filed under: Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, Information, John McCain, Politics, Presidency, Republicans, Voting | Tagged: Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Election 2008, John McCain
thanks for keeping me up on the lastest…you have me inspired to blog….
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