# McCain says Obama's cash will lead to scandal **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 19, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671 "2008-10-19T22:19:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/21 "2008-10-20T03:39:24Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Crap. Now another poster, Chris Waigl, over at ADS posted a turn-of-the-century (1845) legal cite for McCain’s seeming Malapropism. It’s an antiquated legal term, evidently. Not that McCain knew this… McCain probably wrote that brief. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/22 "2008-10-20T03:42:54Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Perhaps in McCain’s world, there is _no other plausible_ explanation for all of that money. Perhaps last week, he laid awake deep into the night, and mulled how Obama was ahead in the polls and gaining ground in key states every day. Concerned, he started to list the reasons. At the top was ad buys, followed by field offices with paid staffers in damned near every state. That requires money. Now, McCain understands money. Especially great deals of money. Where was Obama getting his money? > > _Well,_ he no doubt thought, _besides marrying my wife, where do I get all my money?_ > > Through unethical and illegal ways, like his good friend Charles Keating. > > _Is there any other way to get money?_ > > Well, Obama certainly didn’t marry anybody for it. And the asshole probably wouldn’t leave his wife for a younger, richer beauty queen. > > _He must be obtaining it illegally. I have no proof, but fuck, we went to war with an entire nation and we had less proof than this!_ > > And now here we are. Liars do not trust anybody. This is maybe my second or third time since I joined this board in 2001 to post simply to applaud another post. This is a great piece of … what is it? Sarcasm, satire, parody? Whatever it is, it is brilliant. And that’s not just the chemicals talking. ---
**Author:** ![jkusters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@jkusters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkusters)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/23 "2008-10-20T03:48:34Z")
I can’t help but think that the McCain campaign is desperate to link Obama to terrorists, to frighten the uneducated masses into believing that if Obama took the White House the terrorists will take over America. It’s disgustingly cynical, but I’m coming to expect that from the McCain campaign over the last few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/24 "2008-10-20T03:51:22Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > This is maybe my second or third time since I joined this board in 2001 to post simply to applaud another post. This is a great piece of … what is it? Sarcasm, satire, parody? > > Whatever it is, it is brilliant. And that’s not just the chemicals talking. Thanks. I’d say it’s sarcasm with a side of satire. But I really do believe that something similar to this went through his head. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/25 "2008-10-20T03:57:50Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It sounds more like complaining than something that will be a sustained line of attack. It’s of a piece with stuff like “Who is the real Barack Obama?” and “Why won’t Obama talk about his association with Bill Ayers?” > > McCain has been a proponent of campaign finance reform for a long time, let’s not forget, so from that standpoint it’s not surprising that he would criticize Obama for opting out of public financing. I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about this, actually- it was abandoned a few days after Obama said he wouldn’t accept public funding. NPR news reported McCain saying exactly this on his Fox News version of Meet the Press today. Boo hoo. Obama took him for a chump. Who would you rather have negotiate with Putin, the guy who figured out how to get all the campaign money he needed, or the guy who fell for the trick of getting government funding. BTW, they also reported that the average Obama donation is $87, which is impressively low for the totals he has gotten. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/26 "2008-10-20T04:05:15Z")
Let’s not forget that McCain tried to get out of public financing too, and wasn’t allowed to because he’d already used a pledge to accept federal matching funds as collateral for a loan. His whining about this is the ultimate in hypcritical sour grapes. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/27 "2008-10-20T04:38:16Z")
I think McCain may be talking about the money that has come to Obama from questionable sources. This is no secret - Obama’s campaign has already returned some of this money. [Obama’s “Good Will” Hunting](http://www.newsweek.com/id/162403). > [@](#): > > The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in $458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that’s an illustration of a truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving individual sums of $200 or less don’t have to be publicly reported. Consider the cases of Obama donors “Doodad Pro” of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and “Good Will” of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned. Neither name had ever been publicly reported because both individuals made online donations in $10 and $25 increments. “Good Will” listed his employer as “Loving” and his occupation as “You,” while supplying as his address 1015 Norwood Park Boulevard, which is shared by the Austin nonprofit Goodwill Industries. Suzanha Burmeister, marketing director for Goodwill, said the group had “no clue” who the donor was. She added, however, that the group had received five puzzling thank-you letters from the Obama campaign this year, prompting it to send the campaign an e-mail in September pointing out the apparent fraudulent use of its name. > > … > > (In a similar case earlier this year, the campaign returned $33,000 to two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought T shirts in bulk from the campaign’s online store. They had listed their address as “Ga.,” which the campaign took to mean Georgia rather than Gaza. I’m not offering this with an endorsement. I haven’t been following this very closely at all. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/28 "2008-10-20T04:39:28Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Where was Obama getting his money? > > _Well,_ he no doubt thought, _besides marrying my wife, where do I get all my money?_ > > Through unethical and illegal ways, like his good friend Charles Keating. > > _Is there any other way to get money?_ > > Well, Obama certainly didn’t marry anybody for it. And the asshole probably wouldn’t leave his wife for a younger, richer beauty queen. > > _He must be obtaining it illegally. I have no proof, but fuck, we went to war with an entire nation and we had less proof than this!_ > > And now here we are. Liars do not trust anybody. **pepperlandgirl** , I really do think you’ve summed things up rather nicely. I’ve often thought that this represents a particular mindset, and that it explains many things that leave me scratching my head. One example is the recent kerfuffle with ACORN and voter registrations. It seems really really difficult to get through to certain right-wingers that there was no vote fraud going on - ACORN was required BY LAW, to turn in all registrations, including those they had flagged as suspicious. The right wingers can’t grasp that there was no fraud. In their world, there MUST have been funny business going on. “After all,” they think, “that’s the name of the game - voter fraud is how to win. We play fast and loose with the rules, so others must too.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/29 "2008-10-20T04:42:27Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Perhaps last week, he laid awake deep into the night, and mulled how Obama was ahead in the polls and gaining ground in key states every day. Well, to be fair, Obama isn’t gaining ground in key states every day. Many days, but not all of them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/30 "2008-10-20T11:32:22Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Crap. Now another poster, Chris Waigl, over at ADS posted a turn-of-the-century legal cite for McCain’s seeming Malapropism. It’s an antiquated legal term, evidently. Not that McCain knew this… You mean there’s a board out there that’s even more arcane and nit-picky than we are? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/31 "2008-10-20T11:37:57Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > You mean there’s a board out there that’s even more arcane and nit-picky than we are? :eek: What are we doing wrong? How could we have let this happen? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/32 "2008-10-20T12:23:33Z")
I’ll have you know that Cecil, praise His name, is very disappointed in you. We’ll bring His wrath upon ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/33 "2008-10-20T12:28:15Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Perhaps in McCain’s world, there is _no other plausible_ explanation for all of that money. Around the house here, we have been calling this blindness Sauron’s disease. I am not trying to imply that John McCain is evil by comparing him with Sauron. Sauron was destroyed because he could not imagine his enemy destroying the one ring. He just could not fathom that it was a possibility. He could only imagine his enemy doing what he would do himself. This failing is not due to being evil, indeed, I see non-evil accused of it, only because they are accused of seeing only good motives, they are accused of being naive. In Freudian terms it is like projection with a side of lack of imagination. Again and again in this campaign, McCain has made accusations of Obama that seem more applicable to his own actions. One example is this most recent innuendo with the fund raising that we are discussing here. A few weeks ago it was McCain’s accusations about Obama using the bailout for political purposes and making wild partisan attacks just prior to the presentation of the first bailout bill. Obama had been sitting there, with his mouth shut for the most part (amazingly enough, the man likes to talk, and talk, and talk) and McCain swoops in grinning and making political hay of the whole thing. Obama had not been saying anything sitting at the table. He was just sitting there. What McCain had to say about what Obama had been doing was so far disconnected from Obama’s actions that I wondered if McCain had flipped. Then I realized that he had just assumed that Obama was doing just what he would have done had be been in that situation. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/34 "2008-10-20T12:31:04Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > And Obama, bless his soul, will agree. “Shucks, I din’t do nothin’, really. The economy handed that one. McCain ran a fine campaign. What’s next?” I don’t think so. One of the great things that Obama has been doing is pointing out that this all is a referendum on the entire concept of trickle down economics. I think he’ll continue to point out what a failed and ultimately contentless theory that was. Let’s put a stake through the heart of this undead creature, and continue to shout from the rooftops about the empirical evidence that the economy does better under Democrats than Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/35 "2008-10-20T12:34:46Z")
Could the McCain camp tap into the notion that there’s something wrong with being able to just “buy” an election by having enough money to outspend the other guy? Could such high fundraising numbers be made to backfire on Obama to some extent, in some demographics? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/36 "2008-10-20T14:38:58Z")
> [@jkusters](#): > > I can’t help but think that the McCain campaign is desperate to link Obama to terrorists, to frighten the uneducated masses into believing that if Obama took the White House the terrorists will take over America. It’s disgustingly cynical, but I’m coming to expect that from the McCain campaign over the last few weeks. Yes, this is it exactly. McCain’s strategy as of the end of the fianl debate has been “We know he’s black. He’s probably a terrorist too.” So anything McCain can do to make white people anxious about Obama, he’ll do. That means he personally goes on TV and talks about Bill Ayers (for some reason not mentioning G. Gordon Liddy, who is just as bad a person, just as unrepentant, and is a much closer friend to McCain than Ayers ever was to Obama) and ACORN (for some reason not mentioning Charles Keating, who was much more corrupt, cost the taxpayers vast sums, and is a much closer friend to McCain than anyone at ACORN ever was to Obama). Or he claims Obama will turn the IRS into a “welfare agency” (read: HE’S BLACK!!!) bcause he supports a middle-class tax cut (like McCain does too, of course.) Then he has his robocalls deliver messages like “Who is the real Barack Obama?” (impliededly – “You can’t trust 'em. They’re shifty.”) or saying the Democrats “aren’t who you think they are” because, apparently, we’re in the pocket of Al Qaeda. (It now appears that the company the McCain campaign hired to make these robocalls is the same agency that spread the smear about him having an illegitimate black daughter during the 2000 primary. That’s integrity for ya’.) McCain used to have a good reputation because he didn’t like President Bush any more than most of the rest of us did. But in the last few months he’s revealed himself to be a completely worthless human being. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/37 "2008-10-20T14:49:45Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Yes, this is it exactly. McCain’s strategy as of the end of the fianl debate has been “We know he’s black. He’s probably a terrorist too.” So anything McCain can do to make white people anxious about Obama, he’ll do. That means he personally goes on TV and talks about Bill Ayers (for some reason not mentioning G. Gordon Liddy, who is just as bad a person, just as unrepentant, and is a much closer friend to McCain than Ayers ever was to Obama) and ACORN (for some reason not mentioning Charles Keating, who was much more corrupt, cost the taxpayers vast sums, and is a much closer friend to McCain than anyone at ACORN ever was to Obama). Or he claims Obama will turn the IRS into a “welfare agency” (read: HE’S BLACK!!!) bcause he supports a middle-class tax cut (like McCain does too, of course.) Then he has his robocalls deliver messages like “Who is the real Barack Obama?” (impliededly – “You can’t trust 'em. They’re shifty.”) or saying the Democrats “aren’t who you think they are” because, apparently, we’re in the pocket of Al Qaeda. (It now appears that the company the McCain campaign hired to make these robocalls is the same agency that spread the smear about him having an illegitimate black daughter during the 2000 primary. That’s integrity for ya’.) > > McCain used to have a good reputation because he didn’t like President Bush any more than most of the rest of us did. But in the last few months he’s revealed himself to be a completely worthless human being. > > –Cliffy Considering the nearly rabid “Kill Him” screamers and the blatant lies McCain is willing to spout, I don’t understand how anyone can support McCain. I’m beginning to think that most people are generally nuts in the US. Every time I hear or read about McCain he’s blabbing about how bad Obama is, not how he himself is going to fix anything. I’m surprised no one has really called him on it. (Letterman kind of did, with the Liddy question.) Are these smear tactics working, or are they just firing up people that already want to vote for McCain? ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/38 "2008-10-20T14:55:24Z")
Is this really what McCain wants at this point, another insult for his followers to yell at rallies? They’re already at near mob levels with ‘Muslim’ and ‘arab’ and a few others, does he really need to add ‘crook’ or worse to this? I thought he was trying to rein in this kind of thing, now he’s throwing more fuel on the fire? ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/39 "2008-10-20T15:02:54Z")
How are they going to trace hundreds of thousands of internet donors who give less than $200.00 and therefore don’t have to be reported? JM is looking for something, anything at all, to give him a little traction. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671/40 "2008-10-20T15:04:53Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > The Dems have more money than the Pubbies. Takes some getting used to. OK, I’m over it. It does make one wonder why the Pubs’ wealthy patrons are holding back this year. Maybe they think McCain’s candidacy is so hopeless they’d be wasting their money? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-says-obamas-cash-will-lead-to-scandal/468671.md?page=3)