Obama and Public Financing — A Response to Stuart Roy

June 20th, 2008 Posted in Of Interest

My Crossfit friend Stuart writes the following piece, with which I must respectfully disagree.

With regards to Obama’s “Messianic Image” and the claim that his supporters have “drunk the Koolaid” (or rather “taken shots” of it, far more suitable to the demographic): this is a generic piece of political rhetoric that can be used, and has been used, to describe the supporters of any politician whatsoever. It’s a very convenient charge to make against a popular politician, but it’s unfairly broad generalization to apply to supporters in general — i.e., millions of people.

More than sixteen million people voted for Obama in the primaries. Some I know were ambivalent; some were enthusiastic. Some are more cynical about politicians and their motives, including Obama, and some are more hopeful about the integrity of Obama in particular. But if you think any of them care about whether Obama accepts public financing, I think you are extraordinarily naive. And as for McCain’s complaints, no American politician has gained an advantaged whining pathetically about the fact that his opponent has millions of eager supporters from whom he can raise lots and lots of money. The idea that Republicans complaining about this is especially rich: they generally out-raise the Democrats (and the RNC still has much more money than the DNC).

More importantly, Stuart fails to mention the following:

• Rejecting public financing is not the same as accepting special interest money; I’m
  sure Stuart knows that Obama does not accept special interest PAC or lobbyist contributions, and that when he became the nominee he convinced the DNC not to accept them either.
• There is hardly anything shameful about raising lots of money because you’re getting millions of contributions of $25 from grassroots supporters over the web; that’s a Democratization of campaign finance of which the Obama campaign is rightly proud.
• I’m sure that Stuart knows that public financing is a joke that has long been circumvented by outside groups who post campaign ads on “issues”; remember the swfitboating of Kerry? The money that financed that fell outside campaign finance laws. There is lots and lots of this money. That’s why campaign finance reform is still a big issue — and whether or not one accepts PAC and lobbyist contributions and makes use of these groups is a far bigger issue than whether lots of Americans are sending you $25 checks.

So I think Stuart’s piece is designed to appeal mainly to those who area already McCain supporters and perhaps those who think Obama is a Marxist, not the independents he mentions in the last paragraph. There’s a reason why Obama is polling far ahead of McCain with independents and in swing states. It’s not just “hard-core supporters” who won’t be moved by the partisan rhetoric in Stuart’s post. Again, if you think independent voters are troubled by Obama’s fundraising rather than simply impressed by it, and if you think they don’t know that Stuart would be singing a much different tune if McCain had lots of enthusiastic supporters sending him $25 checks, then I think you have badly misread the political climate. Partisan affiliation is one thing — but let’s not let that cloud our strategic predictions. The idea that the “hopes and dreams” of supporters will coming crashing down because of this decision, when many Obama supporters and contributers like me are proud of our participation in his grassroots fundraising machine, is simply absurd. We Obama supporters are not going to turn our cheeks while independent groups circumvent campaign finance laws to smear Obama as a Muslim, Marxist, and all the rest. Prepare for a fight — and please get over the idea that bemoaning the other guy’s strength is any more effective a political strategy than putting McCain in front of a green backdrop creepily reciting “that’s not change we can believe in.”

Stuart, I hope I have not offended. We’ll have to discuss this over Tequila shots Saturday. I’ll bring the Tequila and my Obama T-shirt.

(And speaking of no public financing, you can donate on my fundraising page here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/wesalwan)