Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Transparency: Secretive Obama Won't Reveal Fundraising Numbers

They must be raking it in from overseas again.
Pres. Obama's re-election campaign won't be disclosing how much money is taken in at the individual fundraising events attended by Pres. Obama. Neither will the Democratic National Committee.

An official says it's the same policy by which the Obama Campaign operated in the 2008 election cycle.

Fundraising numbers have to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, but often not until weeks later - and the FEC documents don't itemize amounts raised at specific fundraising events.

The Obama Campaign is not the first to adopt such a policy, although Pres. Bush's re-election operation in 2004 freely disclosed how much money was taken in at individual events.

The Obama Campaign thinks the release of such information might be akin to divulging strategic political information that opponents could use to discern levels of support.

Pres. Obama often trumpets that his White House is more transparent and open than any other. But it's clear he does not apply that approach to his political fund-raising.
It doesn't apply to anything he does. It's just words.

2 comments:

MikeInMKE said...

Up is down, left is right, war is peace, and secrecy is transparency.

Daniel in Brookline said...

Well, I just tried to make a donation at barackobama.com with a bogus name, and I didn't get very far.  So there must be SOME credit-card tests in place.  

(I was able to make a small donation in 2008, I believe as Mickey Mouse from Antarctica.  So yes, I bear a tiny bit of blame for everything the President does.)

I note, however, that you must select your State from a pull-down menu -- and the menu includes Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.  (I wasn't surprised to see Guam and Puerto Rico and Armed Forces - Europe in the list, but I wasn't expecting Micronesia.)

So I'd say that foreign donations to the Obama campaign website can't be rules out yet.