Obama lays down the law with the DNC

Dang. Obama is scary good at this.

We’re the ones who’ve actually BEEN patriotic the whole last seven and a half years, rather than the ones who’ve talked a big game while replacing the definition of patriotic with that of jingoistic.

We’re also the ones who actually cared about the troops the last seven and a half years, rather than the ones who talked a big game about it while really meaning they cared about KBR and Halliburton.

Eh, its more symbolic then a “genuine change”. As the article notes, PAC money wasn’t a major source of funding for the DNC before this policy, and I imagine the same money will simply be re-routed to Dem political campaigns.

Reminds me of Jesse Jackson’s line: “If they saw me walk on water, they’d say it was because I can’t swim.”

Better at talking than doing, though. Obama takes lobbyist money quite a bit, and has lots of lobbyists in his campaign, even the campaign inner circle.

Link.

Link.

This is a link to the top sources of corporate cash for Obama’s campaign. The donations would be through the PAC or the corporation’s employees. The law firms listed are all registered DC lobbyists.

Now if a partner of a lobbying firm gives you a personal donation, but he made that money through lobbying - can you say you didn’t take lobbying money?

That would be a stretch, IMHO.

Of course. What makes lobby money lobby money is desire for a quid pro quo. A personal donation which is not made on behalf of any company or PAC is not lobby money.

If you make a donation to John Mccain, is he taking money from the military?

The DNC doesn’t even have to do what a Democratic President wants. It’s generally a good idea if POTUS and the party are in line, but the DNC and its chairman are independent of the president. (The DNC Chairman is elected by the members of the DNC, unlike the chairman of the RNC, who’s appointed by the President if the President is a Republican).

Your no doubt sincere concern has been noted and discarded.

Well, Jesus, Mr. Moto. Nobody’s more than six degrees removed from Kevin Bacon. If that’s the best you guys can do this year, you should just quit wasting your money now, drop out of the election, and spend what you need to gut your party and rebuild it.

The exchange of money for a quid pro quo isn’t lobbying. It’s bribery, and is illegal under US law.

I’ll remember that when you express likewise sincere concern about McCain. :wink:

Look, when someone is saying he’s pure as Ivory flakes, it isn’t bad manners to point out the Playboys sticking out from under his mattress. None of this means Obama is a criminal or anything - he just set up rules to allow him to say he’s not taking lobbying money or hiring lobbyists while in fact he’s doing both.

Now if he manages perceptions so well that all of you actually see things his way, fine. I don’t happen to do so. In fact, I don’t have much problem with lobbying - and I don’t think most of us do either, so long as those lobbyists are working for causes we believe in.

I will point out that these weren’t opinion pieces - they were mainstream news stories. And if Obama continues this anti-lobbyist stance, the extent of his own involvement with lobbyists will attract more scrutiny.

Besides, Obama’s chief strategist isn’t six degrees - it’s about one. Think Karl Rove to Bush.

Yeah, right. Just like those “water pipes” at the head shops are sold for “tobacco use only.”

They have a crack team working on it as we speak.

If we really think about it, I think we know who was the gunman on the grassy knoll (Obama was what, two?).

From your Wapo link:

There aren’t enough rolleyes.

Cold Warriors never die. They just spend a lot of time in the freezer in suspended animation between the occasions when they’re trotted out by the John Birch Society for surreal political performance art.

So the co-chair of his campaign in Puerto Rico is a “high-profile role”? Hell, they can’t even come up with anybody from an actual state.

If this really is a meaningless gesture from Obama, I assume McCain won’t have any problem following suit.

I’ve been active in party very heavily in the past, and I was completely unaware that the party was the personal property of the nominee. I’ve never been a DNC member, but I thought that they voted on this sort of thing. DNC members are elected to their posts by State Central Committees acting through their Executive Boards if they have one. I think that there was a lot more room for looking classy here. But it is not a proposal I would simply rubber stamp. The implication is that PACs and Lobbyists are inherently evil. That’s a naive position. It also unilaterally disarms us against Republicans, who are inherently evil (just kidding! only elected Republicans are inherently evil).

What part of his fundraising in the primaries looks like disarmament to you?