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Sorry, But Obama Is a Politician Too
by James Glaser May 22, 2008 Every morning I have to listen to the guy in the studio next door to mine who believes Barack Obama can walk on water. This morning he was there the minute I opened my overhead door to tell me, "It's all over now." I had to bite and ask what was over, and for about the tenth time he told me that Barack Obama had become the Democrat's nominee, with his win, this time in Oregon; and for the tenth time I had to tell him that I didn't care because I wasn't going to vote for either Barack or Hillary. Well, as usual, that statement was a sign for him to give me every reason in the world why Obama was going to be president and how he was going to change America for the better. You see, in this man's mind, Barack Obama is not a politician, but "one of the people." It is almost a ritual now, this guy says that Obama is different, that he isn't a politician, and I come back with "He's the same as McCain or Clinton." He is a United States Senator who, like the other two, has been campaigning full-time for about eighteen months and is taking his pay check from us, but does no work. That in my book makes him a politician. "But he doesn't take PAC money or money from lobbyists, so that sets Obama apart," he says. Well, tonight I had to take the time and check that statement out. Here is some of what I found by Googleing, "lobbyists and Obama." The Boston Globe reports, "In Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns — $296,000 of $461,000 — came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions according to Illinois Board of Elections records." When Obama ran for the Senate in 2004, he collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs. Here is the best one I found. Barack Obama has his own Political Action Committee. (PAC) named Hopefund. In 2005 he took in $115,000 from 56 other PACs, as reported by the Federal Election Commission. In total his PAC raised $4.4 million with money coming from "defense contractors, law firms, and the Securities and insurance industries." Now get this, "Obama took that $4.4 million and used it "To build support for his presidential run by making donations to Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country." It isn't just Obama doing things like this, all politicians do the same thing to some extent. Both Obama and Clinton have sent millions of dollars to the so-called "Super Delegates" we hear so much about. Most likely those "Super Delegates" are double dipping by taking money from both Obama and Clinton. All of this stuff is legal. It was all made legal by politicians — politicians who write and pass the laws of our country. Barack Obama is a politician. He plays the game just like every other politician. Barack is just hoping he gets elected before his supporters figure all of this out. My neighbor at work will know about it tomorrow. |
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