Rather, the challenge is coming from FactCheck.org, the independent consumer advocate site run by the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. There contention, that Obama's claims against Senator McCain and the Republican Party are nothing more than "a large exaggeration and a lame excuse" to divert attention from his apparent position change on the issue of public funding that he announced earlier this week and that money from lobbyists and P.A.C.'s constitute less than 1.7 per cent of McCain's intake and less than 1.1 per cent of the money raised by the RNC.
It's not the first time that Senator Obama has found himself the target of the Annenberg Political Fact Check. In March of last year, after the release of a new campaign ad by the Senator's campaign entitled "Nothing Changes", a commercial aimed at big oil and that made the bold claim that his campaign did not take money from oil companies, casting the dispersion that his opponents did, FactCheck.org looked into the validity of his claims. In their article Obama's Oil Spill they pointed out that no candidate could take money from oil companies, not since President Theodore signed into law South Carolina Senator Ben Tillman's campaign finance reform bill that banned direct corporate donations in 1907. They went further to then demonstrate numerous cases where he took bundled money from oil executives who fundraised for his campaign and the list of how much money came from oil industry employees, including Exxon-Mobile, the company directly named in his commercial.
Without a doubt Senator Obama's claims that "John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs" are aimed at doing what he is in the course of accusing his opponents of doing, "smears and attacks" trying to damage the credibility of his opponent. Yet the reality lies somewhere else all together, as Senator Obama talks about the lobbyists and McCain "allies running so-called 527 groups who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations" he leaves out other parts of the picture all together.
First, that despite the fact that he has put a halt on donations for lobbyists within his campaign and within the Democratic Party, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs OpenSecret.org, Senator Obama has raised 161, 927 from Lobbyists and their families. A small portion of the funds that he has raised so far but still considerably more than none.
More than that, on a party level, it doesn't take into account the money raised by the Democratic Party prior to Senator Obama's decree that the DNC will not take donations from Lobbyists and P.A.C.. Historically the Democrats have done better by their donations than the Republicans have. According to CRP, in the 2004 election run, Lobbyists and P.A.C.'s constituted one percent of the money raised by the RNC and ten percent of the money raised by the DNC.
Secondly, the issue of 527's. There is little doubt that supporters of Senator McCain will come up with 527's targeting Senator Obama. These organizations have become a reality of politics in the new age. But by Senator Obama stating that these groups and their "smear" tactics will only come from the right ignores his own support from such groups.
Since early in the campaign the Illinois Senator has enjoyed the support of MoveOn.org, an organization that he has praised time and time again for their "principled opposition to the war". Though they have announced they are shutting down their 527, MoveOn.org is still planning, according to their statements, to keep their Political Action Committee to raise funds, and with it plan to spend up to $35 million to support the bid of Senator Obama. This includes ad's like "Not William", a commercial featuring a woman with her small child on her lap, telling Senator McCain she can not take him from her to send him to Iraq, as is if to say that Senator McCain will come in to take the baby from her.
This, while sources such as Politico.com point out that there are no serious 527's or P.A.C.'s registered to support Senator McCain in the same way. Yes they can rise but at this point they have not, and even if they had, generally Democrats have benefited more from them historically than Republicans. Even during the famous 2004 campaign where the 527 Swiftboat Vet's for Truth came with there vicious attacks against Democratic Presidential Candidate Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, 527's supporting the the Democratic hopeful outspent ones supporting the Republican Incumbent President George W. Bush by over $20 million dollars.
Finally, none this take into account that over $571,000 of Senator Obama's donations came from employees of Goldman Sachs's, over $358,000 from Citigroup or that over $213,000 came from employee's of oil companies, this, in addition to over $150,000 in bundled money raised by two oil executives, George Kaiser, the chairman of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co, and Robert Cavnar, the CEO of Milagro Exploration LLC. Of the money raised, almost $8 million came from employees working in Securities and Investments and over $1 million from those working in the Banking Industry.
On the other hand, Senator McCain took less than 150,000 from employees of Goldman Sachs's and just over 219 from employee's of Citigroup, the company he raised the most money from the employees of, Merrill Lynch, didn't even constitute half of the the contributions Senator Obama received from Goldman Sachs. On an industry average McCain raised about half of what Senator Obama raised from those working in Securities and Investments and half a million less from those working in the banking industry. McCain's largest contributor base as an industry average, 11 million from those retired, Senator Obama, 17 million from lawyers and those working in law firms.
The simple fact is that Senator Obama has left behind his commitment to public financing not because of a broken system or because of fear of the fundraising power that Senator McCain and the RNC has with Lobbyists and P.A.C's but because with public financing he would be limited to a spending cap of $84 million and they have already raised over three times that through April, the time of the last filing deadline to the tune of over $264 million dollars. All things considered, to spend $84 million tops would constrain his campaign in ways he doesn't want to now realizing the full potential of his fundraising abilities.
All and all it is a vastly different picture than the one that he is otherwise trying to paint for his campaign as he portrays himself as the underdog that would otherwise fall victim to the same sort of campaigning that he is currently engaging in.
What will this all mean in the grand scheme of the campaign is yet to be seen, but all and all it's not a story that will be particularly haunting for the Obama campaign. It doesn't have the same pull as other stories might have, and delves more into the nitty gritty of campaign finance laws, legislation and math, all of which doesn't hold he attention of voters in the bigger picture of politics. Chances are he will coast by this one with little consequence or consideration given to it a few weeks down the road, there just aren't a lot of ways to relate it to voters to give it staying power.
But then just a few thoughts I suppose.