If You’re John McCain, Cheating the System is Okay
For all the public posturing that’s gone on over the past few days over Barack Obama’s wise decision to forego public financing by the McCain campaign and enabled by the press, John McCain has been given a virtual pass on his own cheating of the public financing system.
For starters, he opted into public financing for the primary when his campaign faced an early demise. From MediaMatters.org:
McCain signed a loan agreement that could have forced him to remain in the race — even if he had no chance of winning — in order to be eligible for public matching funds to repay the loan. The New York Times has described the loan as being “secured in part by the promise of federal matching money for the primaries.” Nor did these reports point out that Federal Election Commission (FEC) chairman David Mason has taken the position that McCain cannot legally opt out of public financing for the primary without FEC approval and that in the same letter, Mason asked the McCain campaign to expand upon its assertion that it had not “pledged the certification of Matching Payment funds as security for private financing.” If McCain’s campaign is not allowed to withdraw from the public financing system and if it is found to have raised and spent money beyond public financing limits, its actions “could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison,” according to The Washington Post.
When you see Lindsey Graham and John McCain crying crocodile tears on MTP for the purpose of exaggerating Obama’s choice to opt out of public financing, remember this quote:
“This is serious,” agreed Republican election lawyer Jan Baran. Ignoring the matter on the grounds that the FEC lacks a quorum, Baran said, “is like saying you’re going to break into houses because the sheriff is out of town.”
Yet, what you heard from the media last week was that Barack Obama had gone back on his word. Arianna Huffington has some choice quotes from major media outlets here. I agree with her conclusion, too:
Sphere: Related ContentSo while Obama’s decision is a subject open to debate, the mainstream media should not be allowed to get away with their continued refusal to accurately report on the fall of John McCain.
This is the very big deal.
Take the MOMocrats $27 Challenge
MOMocrat PunditMom put out a challenge awhile back, and now the MOMocrats are throwing it down to the rest of us.
Here it is, in a nutshell:
Several months ago, I read Melinda Henneberger’s book, If They Only Listened to Us: What Women Voters Want Men to Hear. As she was promoting her book, Henneberger quoted a statistic in one article that if every woman who voted in the 2006 national elections had contributed just $27 to any presidential candidate or party, we would pour $1.3 billion dollars into the political system.
I
I’m asking each of you to think about cutting back on the Starbucks just a little bit and contribute $27 to the candidate or political party of your choice. It doesn’t have to be John McCain or Barack Obama. It doesn’t even have to be a presidential candidate — there are plenty of candidates running for national and local offices who could use a little extra cash to get out their messages. If we pool our money, so much the better. But imagine what our $1.3 billion dollars would do, even as individual contributions, to increase the volume of our political voices. Even John McCain would have to sit up and take notice of the issues we think are important.
If you take the $27 challenge and decide to contribute to Obama, would you also consider doing it via my fundraising page? No obligation here, I’m with PunditMom, in that I’d really just like to see every person who votes scrape together $27 and give it to the campaign of their choice.
Imagine the power of $27, multiplied by every voter in this country. Isn’t that public financing at its finest?
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