Obama Bought The Election

Barack Obama bought the presidency. He outspent John McCain by a 3-to-1 margin. After stating his support for public financing of campaigns and telling the world that he would discuss campaign finance with McCain, he broke his word and opted out of the campaign finance system without discussing it with McCain as promised. He is the first presidential candidate to do so since the system began with the campaign of 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

KCCI.com reports:

Obama, a first-term Illinois senator, attracted a flood of donations. He raised more than $600 million during his 18-month bid, shattering the previous record of $357 million that President George W. Bush raised in 2004. In September alone, the Obama campaign took in more than $150 million.

The war chest enabled Obama to advertise aggressively and create extensive campaign operations across the nation, even in states where Democrats have fared poorly for decades. Obama, whose general election spending was expected to top $300 million, capped his ad blitz a week before the election with a more than $3 million, 30-minute infomercial on major television networks.

Arizona Sen. John McCain chose to accept public financing for the general election, limiting his spending to $84 million.

Obama, who during the primary season promised to accept the public financing spending limit, later chose to opt out. He was the first major presidential candidate to forgo public money during the general election since 1976.

McCain and other critics said Obama's record spending shows that the campaign finance system is broken. The system, created in 1974 as part of post-Watergate government reform, was to level the playing field and limit the influence of rich, well-connected donors in presidential elections.

Obama and his supporters have countered that his fundraising has been a healthy expression of democracy. The campaign points out donations came from millions of Americans, who often gave small sums. In September, for example, the average donor gave $86, the campaign reported.

The Obama campaign took in money wherever they could get it. It has been reported that illegal foreign money was taken in. The safeguards of Obama's donation section of his website was disabled, thereby allowing questionable donors to pump in cash. People were finding unauthorized charges for the Obama campaign on their credit cards. The Obama campaign's fundraising could make Watergate pale in comparison for abuses, only I doubt that the Democrat-controlled Congress would bother to investigate their Messiah.

If the public campaign finance system is to work, it has to be made mandatory with no opting out. If this is not done, then the GOP has no choice but to permanently opt out. The GOP should not allow its candidate to be so outspent in the future. It is obscene to allow one candidate to outspend another by a 3-to-1 ratio.