Obama's big fundraising lie

[Tigermike 3,027]

Obama's PACs and Lobbyists Canard

by Patrick Ruffini | June 19, 2008 at 11:53 AM

In his self-serving, disingenuous video opting out of the public financing system today, Obama claimed that his decision to run the first corporate-funded general election campaign since Richard Nixon and CREEP represented "true" public financing and that it was necessary to fight back against a McCain campaign funded by PACs and lobbyists.

Obama has long raised the PACs and lobbyists canard to squeeze more money out of the pocketbooks of his small donors, even though he dramatically outraised and outspent Hillary Clinton in the primary campaign. Obama's campaign doesn't take lobbyist or PAC money, and since Obama became the nominee, neither will the DNC.

But just how big a factor are PACs and lobbyists in Presidential election fundraising?

Not much. Read on.

According to OpenSecrets.org, just 1% of John McCain's contributions a whopping $960,990 -- came from PACs. Over $88 million came from individuals.

Individual contributions $88,221,824 91%

PAC contributions $960,990 1%

And lobbyists? $655,576.

$250 Million Barack is opting out of public financing because John McCain has raised $1.6 million -- less than 2% of his campaign -- from lobbyists and PACs.

Obama used the same Big Lie against Hillary, though she raised $1.25 million from PACs, or about 0.6% of her fundraising. Lobbyists were not in her top 20 industries, according to Open Secrets.

Now, I know that lobbyists are supposed to be the source of all our problems. But lobbyists are ultimately hired guns -- hired and paid for by big corporations. So, is Obama turning down money from executives at big corporations and other special interests? Not hardly. These are the top employers of Obama contributors:

Goldman Sachs $571,330

University of California $437,236

UBS AG $364,806

JPMorgan Chase & Co $362,207

Citigroup Inc $358,054

National Amusements Inc $320,750

Lehman Brothers $318,647

Google Inc $309,514

Harvard University $309,025

Sidley Austin LLP $294,245

Skadden, Arps et al $270,013

Time Warner $262,677

Morgan Stanley $259,876

Jones Day $250,725

Exelon Corp $236,211

University of Chicago $218,857

Wilmerhale LLP $218,680

Latham & Watkins $218,615

Microsoft Corp $209,242

Stanford University $195,262

Roughly 90% of funding for Presidential campaigns comes from individuals, and just 1% comes from PACs. Lobbyists and PACs are convenient scapegoats, but just the tip of the iceberg compared to the millions Obama has received from corporate executives who hire lobbyists to represent them before Congress and the executive branch.

If this is really about small donors, "true public financing" and fighting corporate interests, Obama should have no problem limiting the maximum an individual can give to his campaign to $100 and turning down contributions from employees of Fortune 500 companies in the general election.

LINK