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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:55 pm 
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I recently subscribed to The Nation.
In the last issue there was an oblique reference to an article in some web publication demonstrating that Obama is funded by Wall Street. This seems confusing, considering his stated policy of only accepting personal donations.

Have I been misled about his finances?

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:27 pm 
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I read The Nation too... could you provide an issue # / page?

I'm still under the impression that the majority of Obama's funding comes from small personal donations... with the average donation size being somewhere around $200.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:27 pm 
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I don't have it with me. I'll get it, though.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:53 pm 
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drachefly wrote:
oblique reference to an article in some web publication


Here are some other oblique Obama assetions:

* Obama was raised in a madrassa
* Obama is a closet Muslem
* Obama swore his oath of office on the Koran
* Obama supports and endorses a violent Christian sect
* Obama is the most liberal member of the Senate, more liberal even than Bernie Sanders, Socialist Party - VA
* Obama threw his white grandmother to the political wolves when it suited him
* Obama is, you know, *whisper* black!

All of Obama's fundraising results through February are public record and available for review. I would hazard to guess that if there were really something to this particular allegation, it would be more than an oblique reference in some web publication.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:00 pm 
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What politician hasn't accepted funding from Wall Street? There is no politician running entirely off of $50 cheques from college students, it just can't be done. That is not to say that Obama's campaign is funded entirely, or even primarily by Wall Street, but I would be neither surprised nor disturbed to learn that he's accepted campaign donations from an investment house or six. This is a dog bites man story.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 5:48 pm 
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Meh, what a non-story.

The only interesting thing about Obama's funding is that at this point he probably desperately wants to keep away from public funding, realizing that he can do much better with private financing.

But it's even less of an issue for him than McCain, who is in the same boat, but already put in for public funding and now has to scrap that before he gets any of the money, so he can milk the private purse.

Actually, now that I think about it, even this isn't very interesting...

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:30 pm 
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here we go:

page 13, end of third to last paragraph:

Quote:
Now Spitzer is gone. Wall St. has nothing to fear from Clinton or from Obama, whose candidacy floats on vast contributions from Wall Street, as detailed by Pam Martens in CounterPunch.


I have searched among Pam Martens' articles on Counterpunch for a little while and I only see mentions of Obama in the titles, not the bodies. It's a little odd.

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:32 pm 
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Hmm... is it possible this charge has grown far beyond its proper size in the telling, like some game of political telephone?

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:40 pm 
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No...

That never happens.

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:09 pm 
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I tend to assume that if someone had evidence to back such a claim, they'd publish or broadcast it, and it would make the major news forums. Since this is the first I've heard of it, I call shenanigans.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:14 am 
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Here is some interesting demographical info on the election.

While Obama is not mostly financed by small donors he is heavily financed by them, 34% from donors giving less than 200 dollars is huge, Especially considering a significant number of those are people like me who dropped values significantly less than 200. Over 60% came from donors of less than $2300 Which is pretty significant especially compared to Clinton for whom 60% came from donars over $2300 a whopping 50% of thsoe gave over $4600 the difference in funding sources is pretty striking and calls lie to any idea that Clinton isn't the establishment candidatel, Even McCain isn't so heavilly financed by big pocket donors with like 56% coming from donors giving less than $2300.

And the most amazing factor of all this is that Obama is burrying both of them.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:44 am 
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I only lent any credence to it at all because it looks from here like the Nation endorsed Obama. While I missed the actual issue (Feb 25), I caught the issue on Mar 24 where they dealt with the responding mail.

Of course, there is some serious division among the readers, as the mail in that issue amply demonstrated; it would not be farfetched at all to suppose that there is division among the writers.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:16 am 
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If the only source is a web publication that's not even cited, it's not news, it's rumor. Any worthwhile reporter would have done his own research to support or refute the claim once he saw it.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:32 pm 
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This week's Paul Krugman column also makes an offhand reference to both Clinton and Obama accepting Wall Street donations. I'm still not shocked though.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:48 pm 
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Just read the article. I can't refute what he's saying, I have no evidence either way, but he offers nothing in support of his assertion. It's why I usually avoid opinion columns and political commentators, they tend to dodge the traditional journalistic rules of reliable sources by tossing in offhand comments like that. Then other people quote them as sources, when they never offered any support for their comments in the first place.

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