Watchdog group: Obama’s ad touting oil independence misleading

[jillan]

Oopsie!


WASHINGTON — A Barack Obama campaign ad airing in Indiana that boasts the candidate doesn’t take money from oil companies is “a little too slick,” according to a political fact-checking group.

two oil industry executives are among Obama’s fundraisers.
George Kaiser, the chairman of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama, according to his campaign. So has Robert Cavnar, president and CEO of Milagro Exploration, an oil exploration and production company.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/NEWS07/80407029/0/NEWS06

[anonymous171]

1. employees are not the companies and aren't PACs.

fail.

[jillan]

2. He is taking money from CEO's of oil companies...

[chascarrillo]

3. Who are not oil companies.

[murielm99]

4. No candidate is allowed to take money directly from

oil companies. The way Obama is getting around this is by taking money from the CEOs.

Any of the candidates could make the same claim.

[Auntie Bush]

7. Where is everybody?

Where are all the recommendations and posts when it isn't flattering to Obama or against Hillary. Could it be deliberate bias? Naw! That would
never happen...not on DU!

[redqueen]

16. Maybe the place some go when I mention her parroting the WH lies about Iraq

and parroting the "connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda" BS in her IWR speech?

:shrug:

[anonymous171]

5. Yes. $2,300 worth.

Hillary takes money from registered lobbyists (still 2,300) and from PACs. PACs can be used by companies to funnel money into campaigns, btw.

[rinsd]

8. Pay no attention to those big bundlers!

[journalist3072]

6. Everything about Barack Obama is misleading....I don't trust him any further than I see him...and

even then I don't trust him.

[rinsd]

9. I'm shocked!

As in the oil ad, Obama says he can do what others haven’t because he doesn’t take money from Washington lobbyists. The Annenberg Center says that while it’s true Obama doesn’t accept contributions from those registered to lobby the federal government, he does take money from their spouses and from other employees at lobbying firms. In addition, some of Obama’s bigger fundraisers were registered lobbyists until they signed onto Obama’s campaign, according to the center.

[anigbrowl]

10. I see you left out Hillary's figures...

And Obama has accepted more than $213,000 in contributions from those who work for, or whose spouses work for, companies in the oil and gas industries, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. (The group calculated that Obama’s Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has received more than $306,000 in donations from people tied to the industry.)

I'm OK with individual contributions. An oil-funded PAC would be somethng else.

[rinsd]

11. To be honest, what is the difference between PAC money and bundled money?

Bundling seems a way to get around PAC contributions limits.

In fact I have less issue with a company limited to $5K from a PAC than say getting a score of high level exec to contribute the max.

[anigbrowl]

28. If you held a houseparty and collected donations you'd be a bundler

Every candidate has them. It's not a very big issue for me as long as the contributions are itemized properly. Remember people have to put their employer on their contribution so there's really no way to know which donations are individual or not. The two oil companies that he's received money from aren't exactly big bad corporate giants, are they? I've never heard of them, in fact.

[jillan]

12. Hillary is NOT the one claiming that she doesn't get any $$ from Oil companies or their execs.

[anonymous171]

13. He never said execs. He said companies. And that is correct.

This is just the media's attempt to shore up Clinton's cascade of recent embellishments.

[rinsd]

22. And since companies can't give to candidates by law, its an artful lie praying on voter ignorance.

[rodeodance]

26. "slick" --of BO--purposely deceptive--but he got caught

[redqueen]

14. "or their execs."

Citation please... where / when did he say that.

Thanks.

[jillan]

18. Here you go -----

The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, which monitors the factual accuracy of political statements, points out that the law prevents corporations from directly giving to federal candidates so none of the presidential candidates can accept contributions from Exxon or other oil companies.

Executives and other employees, however, can contribute.

link in my op.

[redqueen]

19. No... you said OBAMA SAID he doesn't take money from execs.

Source please.

[jillan]

21. No - I said that Hillary has not said that she doesn't take money from oil cos or execs.

What I said about Obama was cut and pasted from a watchdog group.

[redqueen]

23. Be more careful with your words:

Hillary is NOT the one claiming that she doesn't get any $$ from Oil companies or their execs.

By attaching that part there in bold, you are implying that Obama DID say that.

[redqueen]

15. I hope you're not the least bit surprised.

It's gone from the kitchen sink to old plastic cutlery found lying under a cupboard.

*sigh*

[Auntie Bush]

17. Here's those missing figures....

36...26...40

[redqueen]

20. No... they gave the figures. $213K (Obama) vs. $306K (Clinton)

"And Obama has accepted more than $213,000 in contributions from those who work for, or whose spouses work for, companies in the oil and gas industries, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. (The group calculated that Obama’s Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has received more than $306,000 in donations from people tied to the industry.)

I'm OK with individual contributions. An oil-funded PAC would be somethng else."


Or... I guess maybe you were just trying to be funny...

[indimuse]

24. K&R!

for TRUTH!

[ProSense]

25. This is cover for oil companies: Obama does it too, everyone loves oil companies' money, but

it's typical BS spin.

[cliffordu]

27. YAWN.....

Man, oh, man, I got some of that creepyfreeper constipation....

Maybe I gotta take a little duMP......


:hurts:


There we go!!! All sweet and clean!!!


Your specious posit stinks worse than my crap.


:patriot:

[bhikkhu]

29. As a supporter, I am uncomfortable with "bundling"

That is where an individual solicits the contributions of other individuals and, with the appropriate paperwork, donates a large number of individual contributions to a campaign. It is entirely different from the contribution of a PAC, and it is not explicitly accepting money from an industry...

but I am uncomfortable with it. Obviously the CEO of a corporation is able to put together the contributions of employees and managers, and the result is only technically different from an industry contribution. I would not assume that Obama's supporters are blind or stupid, but I would neither assume that they are happy about this sort of thing. In my estimation, the jury is in deliberating, and leaning toward either refusing money sourced this way or changing the public claim.