No joke. I had to look up what the hell the “Weather Underground” even was because I was confused as to why the Republicans were so pissed off at the website that I use to check the daily forecast. And then it turns out there were a gang of hippie troublemakers who did some petty shit twenty years before I was born. Who the fuck cares?! The economy is in shambles for Christ’s sake!
Actually, the classy thing would have been for Obama to reimburse his campaign without being asked.
That having been said, I can’t get worked up over Sarah Palin’s bringing her family along on some of her trips, so I can’t get worked up over this either.
How do you know he isn’t planning on doing that? He’s just landed in Hawaii and likely has other things, like his grandma, on his mind.
Frankly, I think a Republican telling the Obama campaign what would be “classy” is the height of comedy.
The other day, McCain was talking about how he had been deployed during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I thought, my God, how old is this this dude? For anyone under 30, you might as well be talking about Teddy Roosevelt’s Roughriders as talking about JFK and being aboard the USS Enterprise with an onion on your belt during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I suppose that would be true were any donors upset by it. But it seems the only one making a case about it is Brad Blakeman, GOP asshat. I am willing to change my tune if you can find some outcry from donor’s to Obama’s campaign over this.
[quote=“Shodan, post:123, topic:469233”]
Actually, the classy thing would have been for Obama to reimburse his campaign without being asked.
QUOTE]
I have not heard anything about Obama paying, not paying, or otherwise for his plane trip to Hawii, but my guess is that if the use of the plane is out of bounds and/or needs to be paid for out of his personal pocket, then he has likely ciphered up how much it costs and possibly even pre-paid for the trip.
If anything, people are using this an excuse to donate more to the campaign. So tax payers in general are unaffected by this, and the people who would have the right to complain (if indeed complaint was appropriate) are responding with prayers, postcards to the Hawaii Obama HQ, and more money. And isn’t that just what the GOP wants to see? Another shower of donations for the Obama campaign? He’s going to have to start renting skywriters to get through all of his money…
Sure, but it is already too late, in the sense that I mean. Ideally, he would automatically reimburse his campaign for anything personal, just as a matter of course. It would be difficult to escape giving the impression that he is reimbursing his campaign because he got called on it, not because he thought it was the right thing to do. If you see what I am saying.
Well, no. A politician shouldn’t be using campaign funds for his personal benefit even if the donors don’t care. That would make it a bribe. I’m sure you can see the problem with that.
Look, I don’t want to give the impression that this is anything much. De minimis non curat lex, even campaign law. I think it is perfectly OK for him to go see his dying grandmother, he is ahead in the polls to the point where it probably doesn’t affect things one way or another, and the McCain campaign should have just said “Sorry to hear about your grandma - our thoughts and prayers are with you” and left it at that. But technically, this is a gray area.
I don’t think this should be a major scandal. But, for better or worse, this is the standard that we are supposed to be holding our leaders. The President in particular is supposed to conduct himself at all times so as to be above reproach.
Now you can certainly argue that this is an unrealistic standard, and I would probably agree with you. It isn’t generally possible for anyone to be as pure as Calpurnia, especially in Washington DC. And this is, as mentioned, something too petty to make much of.
But I have seen a lot of other stuff, equally petty, that Democrats seem much less eager to gloss over. One wonders why that might be.
Unless you’ve donated to Obama’s campaign, you have nothing to bitch about. I donated and I don’t care. McCain’s campaign money comes from taxapayers, so it’s much more ethically dubious to use it to by fancy clothes for his hooker. Obama’s plane trip is not on the public dime. Palin’s extravagant shopping trips are.
Obama’s not personally rich enough to be able to reimburse a trip like this anyway. He’s not Cindy McCain. The classy thing for McCain supporters to do is to shut the fuck up about a guy going to visit his gravely ill grandmother who raised him. Let’s also not forget that your boy J-Mac fake suspended his campaign and then used his campaign plane to fly back to Washington. If his campaign was suspended then why was he using a campaign plane? Riddle me that, bitches.
Thank You. The Palin/clothes pit thread is twice as long as this one and a far more egregious “gray area”, yet Shodan couldn’t bother posting his concerns about “above reproach” behavior in that thread. :dubious:
No, as mentioned, donating to a campaign with the understanding, even after the fact, that the candidate will divert the funds to his personal use, is bribery.
In other words, if I donated $100,000 to McCain, and he used the money for a vacation in the Bahamas, that would be illegal even if I knew about it, and was such a McCain supporter that I didn’t care.
I realize you won’t be able to understand this, because, well, you’re an idiot, but for the rest of the members of the boards…
On edit, I see that ArchiveGuy is just as stupid as you are. Oh well, that’s two that won’t get it.
No it isn’t. And “funds” weren’t used. An airplane was used. A decision which was made by the Secret Service, not the candidate.
If you have a problem with it, I encourage you to try to press charges.
Not to mention people named after Beatles songs.
Golly,
If Senator Obama wants to establish a special PAC to repay the Campaign funds for the trip, I will donate to it.
And Another donation to a fund to tar and feather the Republican asshole who made the comment, and run him out of every town in America on a rail.
Tris
One certainly does wonder! You do. That makes one. Impeccable logic.
That makes one.
I see what you did there.
As a taxpayer, an Obama supporter, a partial owner of his campaign and a human being I have to say I honestly could give two shits about him flying in a publically funded plane to see his grandmother. Hell, just about anyone could ask me for a few bucks to see a dying relative and I’d do what I could, even Shodan.
This is not about politics, it’s not about the campaign or about one party versus the other, this is about compassion. This is about doing what you have to do to take care of family business first then worrying about the devil in the details later. This is about priorities and I think Obama has made his priorities known. It is an honor to wittness someone living up to his committments as a family member first. Who knows, will he pay for the flight afterwards? Will he go ahead and write it off on our dime? Will he deliver a campaign speech in Hawaii just to make it all legit? Who knows, who cares.
It’s all about the family committment and our compassion towards each other right now. Plenty of time to sort out the business end of the deal later.