"Straw man" donations to the McCain campaign
McClatchy has picked up the story of the possible "straw man" donations from Hess oil, the office manager and her Amtrak foreman husband who gave $61,000 to the McCain campaign.
And, today, we have a WaPo frontpager on McCain bundler which seems to have the clear implication of many, many more "straw man" donations to McCain.
(LATER: FirstRead/NBC points out that the bundler in the WaPo article made all his money through some questionable bidding practices on shipping oil into Iraq.)
Separate from the legal issues, if this "breaks through", it could be politically explosive in that it reinforces the "rich Republicans trying to buy the election" narrative undermining several of McCain's policy points on tax cuts, energy, business regulation, and reinforces the corrupt GOP narrative.
If this "breaks through," it turns him into a regular Republican.
(This might well be going on in the Obama campaign, too, but we're yet to hear of it.
The NYTimes has a frontpager on Obama's big donors saying 1/3 of his money comes from $1,000 or more donations, but doesn't that also mean 2/3 comes from $1,000 or less?)
Semi-related: It's also notable that the Swiftboaters are trying to come back, but their money man and backer, T. Boone Pickens, is nowhere to be found among Republican moneymen. He's pushing his own energy plan, and saying nice things about Obama.
And, today, we have a WaPo frontpager on McCain bundler which seems to have the clear implication of many, many more "straw man" donations to McCain.
(LATER: FirstRead/NBC points out that the bundler in the WaPo article made all his money through some questionable bidding practices on shipping oil into Iraq.)
Separate from the legal issues, if this "breaks through", it could be politically explosive in that it reinforces the "rich Republicans trying to buy the election" narrative undermining several of McCain's policy points on tax cuts, energy, business regulation, and reinforces the corrupt GOP narrative.
If this "breaks through," it turns him into a regular Republican.
(This might well be going on in the Obama campaign, too, but we're yet to hear of it.
The NYTimes has a frontpager on Obama's big donors saying 1/3 of his money comes from $1,000 or more donations, but doesn't that also mean 2/3 comes from $1,000 or less?)
Semi-related: It's also notable that the Swiftboaters are trying to come back, but their money man and backer, T. Boone Pickens, is nowhere to be found among Republican moneymen. He's pushing his own energy plan, and saying nice things about Obama.
posted by mikevotes at
7:49 AM
2 Comments:
Re: NYT story on Obama donors....
I thought that article was particularly incongruous. First of all, as you point out, 2/3 of the money is coming form donations smaller than $1,000. More importantly, as the percent of DONORS who are giving > $1,000 is much less the 1/3. The same article could have read "90% of Obama donors give less than $1,000".
And then there's the fact there's no context. What percent of McCain's war chest comes >$1,000 contributions? What percent of McCain DONORS are giving more than a grand? What is the historical apportionment of >$1,000 to a Democratic candidate.... to a Republican candidate. There's no context.... only subtext, that Obama is somehow in bed with big money people.
It's just sloppy journalism, in my opinion.
As far as the other "straw man" stuff with McCain... It doesn't matter. No one expects any better from the Republican nominee. No one cares and there's no enforcement anyway. Too wonky for the general public.
By
-epm, at 10:20 AM
Agreed on all points, except that I do think McCain tied to dirty money would damage him a bit.
It destroys any claim of "maverick"-ness and does make him more of a rank and does tie him closer to all the publicized Republican corruption.
By
mikevotes, at 10:57 AM
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