Oh irony of ironies....
How many Euros and Great British Pounds (not to mention Chinese Yuan, etc. etc) do you think were co-mingled in the 2007/2008 Obama Kitty along with funds from US citizens, by "juuuust a bit too enthusiastic foreigners"??
Posted on 10/22/2010 2:58:51 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE FUN AND GAMES) "September 19, 2007 Rudolph Giuliani is raising campaign cash in London. Only U.S. citizens and green-card holders can legally give to U.S. campaigns. But Giuliani, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are all holding events for Americans living in the British Isles. ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Today, Republican Rudolf Giuliani campaigned for the White House in England. Tonight he's got a lecture and dinner with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But in this cash-craze race for the White House, he also did something no other presidential candidate has ever done: He held a fundraiser on foreign soil.
NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY: The event with former Prime Minister Thatcher is meant to establish Giuliani as the natural heir to Thatcher's old friend, Ronald Reagan. Thatcher gave Giuliani the Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom. Giuliani gave a speech praising the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
OVERBY: And there is money to be taken advantage of. Presidential candidates cannot accept contributions from anyone except U.S. citizens and green card holders. But London is swarming with Americans in the securities and investment industry. It's an industry that had showered more money on Giuliani than on any other candidate. That's according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
London has so many refugees from Wall Street because in this country with the (unintelligible) law, their activities are more heavily regulated than they used to be. Tim Montgomery is a conservative political blogger in London. ......
OVERBY: It's been common for White House candidates to send surrogates overseas to campaign and even raise money. But until Giuliani, no presidential candidate has ever gone hunting for dollars overseas. Robert Mutch is an independent historian of money's role in American politics.
Mr. ROBERT MUTCH (Political Historian): To my knowledge, this have never happened before, and I think it's never happened before because it never made sense before.
OVERBY: Here's why it makes sense now: First, as Giuliani himself noted, the presidential campaigns are eating cash like never before. Second, more Americans work overseas in this global economy. And, finally, those Americans -the same as others - are getting more involved in politics. And it's not just Republicans.
Christine Marques, in Geneva, is the international chair of Democrats Abroad. She lists the hot-button issues from the Iraq War to global warming, and says this.
Ms. CHRISTINE MARQUES (International Chair, Democrats Abroad): I think that every American feels very strongly about many of these issues and they want to make sure that their voices are heard.
OVERBY: Overseas voting surged in 2004. Turnout was up 75 percent from the year 2000, according to the Pentagon, which manages all absentee voting from outside the U.S. Where there are votes, there's money. So now, it's cost-effective to after big contributors in foreign cities.
Two weeks from today, Bill Clinton will hold a fundraiser in London for his wife Hillary's campaign. He'll already be there on a book tour according to the campaign. And the following week, Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, will fly to London for two fundraisers. The campaign says it's a quick, over and back trip. She doesn't want to be away from their children more than two nights.
Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington. " (Filed 19 September 2007)
Oh irony of ironies....
How many Euros and Great British Pounds (not to mention Chinese Yuan, etc. etc) do you think were co-mingled in the 2007/2008 Obama Kitty along with funds from US citizens, by "juuuust a bit too enthusiastic foreigners"??
Does this mean the Clintonistas will finally be brought to account for the Chicom, Riadhi family and drug cartel money they got for Campaign ‘96?
No, in all honesty-—but providing this information in the final days of campaign 2010 certainly doesnt hurt the current cause and shows what two-faced Alinskyites they (Obamas) are.
Hey. They’re Democrats. Two-faced comes with the territory.
And to think they are kicking around a candidate, Mark Kirk in Illinois for US Senate, over this kind of thing about a so-called "Beijing FR" (fundraiser) among Americans located/working overseas who have every right to donate to a campaign.
Actually, the whole Obama campaign donation thing from abroad in 2008 is an immense can of worms. I am sure the Republican Congress and Senate will get to the bottom of it in 2011.
Ed Pilkington, New York, The Guardian, Saturday 1 September 2007 Britain is to get its first taste of the Barack Obama fervour sweeping through the US when his campaign arrives London in October hoping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy Democrats in the capital. A fundraiser to be held at the Landmark Hotel in central London on October 15 will provide a glimpse of the excitement surrounding the Obama campaign. There will only be one drawback: Mr Obama will not be there in person, he will be represented by his wife, Michelle. The dinner, announced last night by ABC News, is designed to tap some of the thousands of Democratic-leaning Americans living in Britain. Mr Obama has proved himself to be a master of fundraising - a key to success in the TV advertising-driven US primaries. In six months he has raised more than $58m (£29m), compared with Hillary Clinton's $52m. Though campaign chiefs are reluctant to let Mr Obama leave the US at a time of intense electioneering across the US, Mrs Obama is seen as a respectable stand-in. She is beginning to develop a presence of her own on the campaign trail that will help to chip away at the advantage Mrs Clinton has in the form of her spouse, the former president. She has also begun to attract controversy. In a recent appearance on the stump, Mrs Obama made what some interpreted at a dig at Mrs Clinton's inability to control her husband's sexual indiscretions with an intern. "If you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House," Mrs Obama said, though she later denied it carried any such connotations. The London fundraiser will be subject to the same legal restrictions as those in the US. Only American citizens will be able to contribute financially, with an upper limit of $2,300 per person. But the [Obama] campaign has let it be known that anyone managing to draw together contributions from a group of 10 or more eligible donors totalling at least $23,000 - a process known as bundling - will be invited to a special VIP pre-reception. With wealthy American bankers increasingly spending time in London - the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, for instance, spends six months of the year in the City - the attraction for fundraisers seeking to drum up support for the many candidates running for 2008 is self-evident.
Great catch.
Well, its all out there.
Michelle Photos. Reports. Announcements and Invites. British Press. The whole nine yards.
Pulling it all together would make a GREAT GOP or 501 (c) 3 independent conservative ad to bash back at the Democrats...although it seems they might be dropping this "GOP Foreign Money Corrupts Elections" line, seeing as what little mileage they got out of it and their internal polling may have shown it backfiring.
There’s nothing wrong with the events themselves — the articles clearly show that they were supposed to be limited to American citizens happening to live (or visit) overseas only. Donations from U.S. citizens living abroad is not “foreign money”.
The problem is that we know the Obama campaign was extremely lax (and quite likely, intentionally) about verifying the whole “American citizen” thing for campaign contributions. It’s be interesting to see lists of donors and how many of them are bogus names.
This shoes that the Dems can charge the Chamber of Commerce all they want, with no proof, that foreign interests are giving to the GOP side, but they open themselves up to the scrutinty of Michelle Obama campaigning outside the United States and fundraising on foreign soil, too. And nobody can tell me that only US nationals came into those tony salons, or were money bundlers for Obama. No way.
So, accordingly, they can be reblasted right back with this when they bring up the Kirk and Chamber of Commerce type stuff. Having had the First Lady overseas begging for contributions is even icing on the cake, IMHO.
I think the vast majority of Americans know that campaign contributions are easily disguised and that a lot of candidates get what is technically illegal contributions. Most Americans don’t care. They do care about candidates being honest and doing what is best for America. That eliminates most dems.
I looked through some of the names back in 2008, and found about $400,000 that was shady. If I, will no expertise in elections, could find that so easy, surely there were many millions that was shady money.
bump
"September 19, 2007 Rudolph Giuliani is raising campaign cash in London. Only U.S. citizens and green-card holders can legally give to U.S. campaigns. But Giuliani, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are all holding events for Americans living in the British Isles."
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