Hoisted by his own reform
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
Having sown this whole new
cockamamie system of Campaign
Finance Reform, John McCain now has reaped the bitter harvest: He succeeded in torpedoing his own campaign. His Democratic opponent, after deciding to renege on his oh-so-sincere devotion to public financing, far outspent the Republican nominee in the presidential campaign and become president-elect. (Congratulations again, Senator. ) Not only that, but the Obama campaign found ways to be far more secretive about its fundraising. Did you read the end of that story about campaign finance the other day ? (“ Election spending upending system” ) Donors to a presidential campaign who give less than $ 200 needn’t be identified under this new “reformed” system. And while the McCain campaign listed all its donors on its website, the Obama people didn’t, raising the question: How easy was it be for one contributor to give lots of less-than- $ 200 contributions and get away with it ? Apparently, very.
Also, some contributors to the Obama campaign seem to have far exceeded the legal limit of $ 2, 300. And there are interesting names among them. For example, Doddad Pro is listed as donating more than $ 17, 000 and Good Will gave the senator more than $ 11, 000.
Conclusion: John McCain’s campaign finance “reform” needs to be reformed. Or better yet, just junked.
Why not settle for just simple, full disclosure ? With the only requirement being that each contributor, his whereabouts, and the amount of his contribution be instantaneously released to the public via the internet ?
While the country’s at it, let’s restore free speech to all those outfits who have to stop running their political views just before election day. Or would that be unspeakably fair and simple ?
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