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Obama: Don’t fund independent groups – The Politico (5/13/08)

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign is steering the candidate’s wealthy supporters away from independent Democratic groups, calling into question what had been expected to be the groups’ central role in this year’s Democratic offensive against Senator John McCain.

Obama’s national finance chairwoman, Chicago hotel mogul Penny Pritzker, told supporters at a national finance committee meeting in Indianapolis May 2, and in other conversations, not to give money to the groups, people familiar with her comments said.

“From the beginning of this race Obama has told supporters that if they want to help his effort, they should do so through his campaign,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton, who confirmed that Pritzker has told donors not to give to the groups. “And he means exactly what he says.”

I know it’s not exactly going to shock anyone, but I think this is way out of bounds. Let’s address the idea, raised by some of my correspondents, that this is all Kabuki. The Obama campaign has no intention of enforcing this, and maybe never even mentioned this to donors, all in an effort to be seen as taking the high road in the less than savory 527 group game. They think that by going a step past renouncing groups like David Brock’s Progressive Media USA, John Podesta’s Fund for America, and George Soros‘ America Votes, all the way to actively choking off their funding, they’ll force McCain to do the same with corresponding right wing 527s.

Has no one been paying any attention to the It’s OK if McCain Does It zone the media has carved out so far this year? Is it not clear enough that McCain can’t be held responsible for the hateful remarks of John Hagee, but Obama may as well have said himself everything that Jeremiah Wright said. And then there’s always the example that will probably serve as the blueprint for the next five months:

Despite objections from Senator John McCain, the North Carolina Republican Party is planning to roll out a television advertisement on Monday attacking two Democrats who are running for governor by linking them to Senator Barack Obama and playing a clip of his former pastor excoriating the United States.
[...]
In the advertisement, a narrator intones, “For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew, listening to his pastor.” Then a video clip of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who was Mr. Obama’s pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, is cued up.

Preaching in 2003, Mr. Wright uses an expletive when referring to the United States and discussing its treatment of African-Americans, arguing that instead of singing “God Bless America,” they should sing something else. Mr. Obama has said he was not at the service.

The narrator then declares Mr. Obama “too extreme for North Carolina” and attacks the two Democrats running for governor, Beverly Eaves Perdue, the lieutenant governor, and Richard H. Moore, the state treasurer, for endorsing Mr. Obama.

But Saint McCain said noooooo:

“There’s no place for that kind of campaigning,” Mr. McCain said. “The American people don’t want it, period.”

In a letter his campaign released to Linda Daves, chairwoman of North Carolina’s Republican Party, Mr. McCain said the advertisement “degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats.”

The result?

…Brent Woodcox, communications director for the state party, said it still planned to broadcast the commercial, although for how long and how extensively throughout the state had not yet been decided.

McCain gets to look high-minded while the smears are rolled out, and the press eats up both ends of the story.

So even though the Obama campaign has already been on the losing end of this charade, they want to steer the whole process right to where the Republicans are already operating. And while the media got exactly the two candidates they pined for in the beginning, make no mistake about which one is their true love.

But back to Obama and the liberal 527s. Occam’s razor time: what’s the simplest reason that Obama would want to see donors shun these groups? Probably the simplest would be that he wants all the money to himself. But even the wealthiest Democrats can only give Obama $2,300 more, and if you’re giving that much, you have more to give. And 527s aren’t limited to any dollar amounts. Past that, there has been a lot of talk about Obama opting out of public financing for the general election, instead accepting only donations far below $2,300 from many more people to prove a point. That leaves even more money on the table that could be put to very good use by bright, experienced people like Brock, Podesta, Soros and others. But not if the Obama campaign gets their way.

So if Obama knows he’s going to have all the money he needs, what is the next simplest explanation for choking off the 527s? Money is power, and Obama wants to consolidate all of it under his own control. Fine! you say? Let’s keep in mind that Obama really just barely beat Hillary Clinton, and had it not been for Republicans and Independents, he wouldn’t have beaten her at all. Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn didn’t even know delegates were awarded on a proportional basis! And Obama is now operating as if he should be able to control the Democratic Party? Kind of ironic coming from a man who can’t even bring himself to say the word ‘Democratic,’ no?

So now we’re all supposed to trust a team that came awfully close to losing to one of the worst conceived and worst run campaigns ever (and that’s including John Kerry ‘04 and Al Gore ‘00) to go it alone, excluding some of the top operators in Democratic media and politics.

I don’t think so.