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Was Obama Right to Opt Out of Public Financing?
Newsweek ^ | September 9, 2008 | Andrew Romano

Posted on 09/09/2008 4:18:03 PM PDT by Zakeet

On the night of Sept. 16, Barack Obama will not be in Cincinnati, Ohio, or Lebanon, Va., or Grand Rapids, Mich., or any of the other swingiest regions of the swingiest swing states. Instead, the Democratic presidential nominee will start his evening at a 46,000 square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills, then proceed to the posh Beverly Wilshire hotel, where rooms start at $495 a night. Needless to say, Obama won't be prospecting for votes in the Golden State, where he currenty leads Republican rival John McCain by an insurmountable 15-point margin. He'll be mining for money.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. When Obama opted out of public financing--unlike McCain, who gladly accepted an $84.1 million check from the American taxpayers on Sept. 5--the chattering classes predicted that his efficient Web-based small-donor money machine would rake in "around or above $300 million" for the two-month general election campaign, a sum even larger than his record-shattering $272 million primary haul. But as we noted (first on July 11 and again on Aug. 19) "the real surprise" of this year's cash chase is that "it's much more competitive than anyone expected." Take July, for example. While Obama netted a massive $51 million--again clobbering McCain, who racked up $27 million--the important statistic to look at is the combined amount of cash-on-hand for each candidate and his party (i.e, how much is actually available to spend on getting the nominee elected). In this case, the totals were nearly identical: the Republicans finished the month with $96 million in the bank ($75 million for the RNC, $21 million for McCain) versus $94.3 million for the Democrats ($25.8 million for the DNC, $65.8 million for Obama).

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008election; campaignfinance; financing; obama; obamabiden
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To: Zakeet

Obama is not very wise when it comes to management decisions. So he is running for president of the United States why? Oh yeah . . . massive EGO!!!


21 posted on 09/09/2008 5:14:32 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: paudio

....and the irony of ironies will be that he’s been touting his campaign as the source of his executive experience and if he runs out of money, well, schadenfreude!


22 posted on 09/09/2008 5:17:12 PM PDT by spacejunkie01
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To: paudio

....and the irony of ironies will be that he’s been touting his campaign as the source of his executive experience and if he runs out of money, well, schadenfreude!


23 posted on 09/09/2008 5:17:32 PM PDT by spacejunkie01
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To: quantim

A fool and his money are some party!


24 posted on 09/09/2008 5:19:11 PM PDT by PhilipFreneau ("The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." - Psalms 14:1)
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To: Zakeet
he currenty leads Republican rival John McCain by an insurmountable 15-point margin.

Only 15 ? That's not insurmountable tho' would be difficult.

25 posted on 09/09/2008 5:33:32 PM PDT by 1066AD
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To: dr_who
Ok,don’t worry be happy.
OK. I'd much rather be happy than sit here wringing my hands.
26 posted on 09/09/2008 5:48:39 PM PDT by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movement have in common? Disinformation)
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