Obama, McCain Battle for the Mr. Clean Campaign Image

Submitted by John Stauber on

NPR reports that "Barack Obama, exerting his new power as leader of his party, has told the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to eschew all contributions from Washington lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). ... Obama also dispatched a close adviser, consultant Paul Tewes, to the DNC. ... Lobbyists have been fundamental to most modern presidential campaigns -- and controversial, too. But never before have they been treated this harshly, as pariahs, as Obama and Republican John McCain joust to be the reformer of Washington's sinful ways. McCain's campaign hit back at Obama on Thursday, pointing out that he has been endorsed by the progressive group MoveOn.org, which is organized as a PAC. MoveOn this week is urging its members to contribute to Obama." Obama's advisor Paul Tewes' firm, Hildebrand Tewes Consulting , also runs MoveOn's anti-war coalition, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. "For the DNC, the bottom-line question is whether Obama's edict will hurt the budget. The answer is almost certainly no."

Main Source: 
NPR Morning Edition, June 7, 2008
Topics: 
Iraq
Election 2008
Democracy
Ethics
Lobbying
Politics

Comments

Pani113 replied on

There is a difference between something "organized" as a PAC like MoveOn, and a lobbyist for a mega corporation. The former represents the interests of many average citizens where the latter represents the interests of a huge corporation AGAINST the average person. Besides, the former is just about people becoming politically expediant and playing the game the way the current rules are set up. If the power of special intersts were diminished, we may not need PACS.

dysieBEL replied on

well probably all of us wants to have a good leader right? But we cant find them easily . USA presidential election is fast approaching as i saw this video Obama v. McCain: Setting the Tone .McCain is in serious trouble now, even GOP is not yet warming him up. But don’t worry it’s still an early race then. You never know a senior citizen might have the momentum to smoke the competition between the two; Try to check it out, what you think after you heard their speeches.