Maybe nobody noticed! Candidate Barack Obama DECLINED campaign matching funds ...

[twins.fan]

Maybe nobody noticed! Candidate Barack Obama DECLINED campaign matching funds, the first presidential campaign candidate to do so. Candidate Obama also declined to abide by the limitations of corporate campaign contributions.

Because candidate Obama was not restricted by the limitations of corporate campaign contributions, candidate Obama was able to collect millions of dollars from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Oracle, GE, Apple, Bank of America etc in corporate campaign contributions.

Dick Cheney met with his campaign contributors from Exxon and Texaco and Halliburton behind closed doors to craft legislation beneficial to his contributors. Barack Obama is meeting with his campaign contributors from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Intel behind closed doors to craft legislation beneficial to his contributors.

Dick Cheney is TOTALLY CORRUPT! Barack Obama is TOTALLY CORRUPT!

[elleng]

1. See you around, maybe.

Recall that Senator Obama was competing against republicans who had no limitations on their ability to accumulate funds.

You may find you have few friends around here, if you suggest President Obama was and is as 'corrupt' as dick cheney.

[twins.fan]

16. Actually I am not looking for friends. I am looking for people who stand for the principles of ...

Democratic Party.

[elleng]

21. There are plenty of us here.

[twins.fan]

24. Thanks! I though so!

[samsingh]

30. i don't think you are.

[jberryhill]

38. You are accomplishing your goal of not looking for friends

With great success.

[Robb]

2. And the milkshakes he drinks, made from puppies.

Don't forget those milkshakes.

[JI7]

3. so he learned from 2004 and how media gave free advertising to swift boaters

good for him

[one_voice]

4. ..

[babylonsister]

5. Wow. You soaked this for awhile... pepperoni? nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. It helps if you can back things up with numbers.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php

[jberryhill]

8. And what do those numbers say?

The table at Opensecrets lists the top companies which individual donors identified as their employer.

Please show the contributions made by these companies, as alleged in the OP.

[jberryhill]

7. Another person who can't read data

Identify these "millions of dollars" from Google, Microsoft, etc.

And, when you do this, please distinguish between donations made by these corporations, and not by employees of these corporations.

[peace13]

9. Dick Shooter started a war for his contributors!

He met behind closed doors to divide the spoils of said war. There is no soul on earth that is as low or dark as Shooter. Sorry.

[patrice]

10. The idea is to win, so you have a chance to do the right thing. If you disagree with that, I shall

take it that you would have preferred Mitt Romney.

[OldDem2012]

11. Lions, and tigers, and Barack Obama, oh my!! nt.

[jeff47]

12. Wow are you wrong.

Matching funds were first available in 1976. And every candidate took them....until 1996. When Steve Forbes was the first presidential candidate to decline matching funds.

For Primary elections:
George W Bush and Forbes declined them in 2000.
In 2004, Bush, John Kerry and Howard Dean declined them.
In 2008, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama declined them.

For General elections:
In 2008 Obama declined them
In 2012 Mitt Romney and Obama declined them.

Because candidate Obama was not restricted by the limitations of corporate campaign contributions, candidate Obama was able to collect millions of dollars from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Oracle, GE, Apple, Bank of America etc in corporate campaign contributions.

No, taking matching funds limits what the candidate can spend. Contributions are still limited regardless of matching funds.

And companies can not give directly to a candidate. Companies can only give to parties and PACs. So matching funds are irrelevant for corporate donations - they only restrict spending by the candidate, not parties and PACs.

There's concern that the SCOTUS will change that rule with a Citizens United-like decision, but they have not done so yet.

[jberryhill]

13. "companies can not give directly to a candidate"

What happens is that the FEC data where people identify their employer is aggregated by sites like opensecrets, and then people who don't understand either the data or opensecrets, come here to say that "Company X gave so-and-so Y million dollars".

It's a perennial favorite.

[jeff47]

14. All the more reason to explain it to them, so there's a chance they'll stop being wrong. (nt)

[jberryhill]

15. I don't know about this one

But in similar re-hashes of the same assertion, the poster generally knows they are wrong. That's not the point.

[jeff47]

25. Even when you can't fix the ones spewing wrong

there's people who come by later and read the thread. They should know that the poster either doesn't know what they're talking about, or is lying.

[jeff47]

18. Great! You can have them thrown in prison for breaking federal election law.

Unless you don't understand what you're talking about.....

[jberryhill]

19. I don't like to say "I told you so", but I told you so

[jeff47]

22. So, you don't know what you're talking about.

Too bad. You might have a point buried in all that wrong.

[jberryhill]

27. Okay, please document one campaign contribution from Google to the Obama campaign

Please show your work.

[jeff47]

28. Why are you repeatedly replying to the same post?

Are you hoping people don't notice the authors are the same?

[jberryhill]

31. Alas, he cannot reply in this thread

[jeff47]

33. I'm sure he'll pop up again. (nt)

[jberryhill]

34. Not if the TOS button is checked

[jberryhill]

40. He sleeps with the fishes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=288405

Our good deed for the day is done.

[jberryhill]

26. Could you describe how this is done

Oh, I see.... this is all cleverly disguised as individual contributions by people who happen to be employed by Google....

You see, when you make a campaign contribution, you identify your employer. The data can be sorted that way, but it doesn't mean that Google is making a contribution.

Here are some to Obama (there are hundreds):

Contributor Occupation Date Amount Recipient

WEINBERGER, PETER
SYOSSET,NY 11791 GOOGLE, INC. 9/6/12 $5,000 Obama, Barack (D)

HANDLER, MICHAEL
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94114 GOOGLE 8/30/12 $3,000 Obama, Barack (D)

PARK, BRIAN
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94110 GOOGLE 7/6/12 $2,515 Obama, Barack (D)

ACHARYA, ANURAG
LOS ANGELES,CA 90024 GOOGLE 10/28/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

AGRAZ, DAVID
JERSEY CITY,NJ 07302 GOOGLE 4/17/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

AGRAZ, DAVID
JERSEY CITY,NJ 07302 GOOGLE 9/27/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

ALVIDREZ, MARC
PALO ALTO,CA 94303 GOOGLE 8/22/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

ALVIDREZ, MARC
PALO ALTO,CA 94303 GOOGLE 9/10/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BAU, DAVID
LINCOLN,MA 01773 GOOGLE 7/14/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BAUGHER, LEXI
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94131 GOOGLE 9/7/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BELLACK, JONATHAN
MONTCLAIR,NJ 07043 GOOGLE 8/15/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BELLACK, JONATHAN
MONTCLAIR,NJ 07043 GOOGLE 8/15/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BRANTS, THORSTEN
PALO ALTO,CA 94303 GOOGLE 8/8/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BRIN, SERGEY
PALO ALTO,CA 94304 GOOGLE 10/4/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

BRIN, SERGEY
PALO ALTO,CA 94304 GOOGLE 10/4/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CAIRNS, BRIAN
BOULDER,CO 80301 GOOGLE 5/25/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CAIRNS, BRIAN
BOULDER,CO 80301 GOOGLE/SOFTWARE ENGINEER 3/31/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CERF, VINTON G
MC LEAN,VA 22102 GOOGLE INC 11/1/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CERF, VINTON G
MC LEAN,VA 22102 GOOGLE INC 11/1/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CHANG, ANN MEI
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94105 GOOGLE 4/16/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CHATHAM, ANDREW
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94103 GOOGLE 10/27/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

CHATHAM, ANDREW
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94103 GOOGLE 10/27/11 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

COHN, DAVID A
PALO ALTO,CA 94301 GOOGLE, INC 7/31/12 $2,500 Obama, Barack (D)

....and many, many more.

Here are some to Mitt Romney (and there are hundreds):

MCGOVERN, COURTNEY O MS
CHICAGO,IL 60611 GOOGLE 9/13/12 $2,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

PAINE, BRANDON
MADRID,MA 28006 GOOGLE 8/14/12 $2,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

PATTERSON, ANNA L MS
SARATOGA,CA 95070 GOOGLE 10/17/12 $2,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

PIZZELLA, MARY J MRS
ALEXANDRIA,VA 22302 GOOGLE INC. 9/7/12 $2,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

SPECTOR, ALFRED
PELHAM,NY 10803 GOOGLE INC. 9/9/12 $2,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

LAWYER, JUSTIN
MENLO PARK,CA 94025 GOOGLE 10/18/12 $2,000 Romney, Mitt (R)

PATTERSON, ANNA L MS
SARATOGA,CA 95070 GOOGLE/ENGINEERING 12/12/11 $2,000 Romney, Mitt (R)

SEHR, DAVID
CUPERTINO,CA 95014 GOOGLE 10/17/12 $2,000 Romney, Mitt (R)

SHAZEER, NOAM
PALO ALTO,CA 94301 GOOGLE INC. 9/25/12 $1,789 Romney, Mitt (R)

PISTRITTO, JOSEPH
FREMONT,CA 94539 GOOGLE INC. 10/16/12 $1,500 Romney, Mitt (R)

DUNN, LEE MS
ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 GOOGLE 12/12/11 $1,000 Romney, Mitt (R)

[samsingh]

29. maybe you didn't notice - the supreme court sold out to corporate interests

[jberryhill]

32. I see..

Since the OP is now locked out of this thread, perhaps you would like to identify a contribution by a corporation to the Obama campaign.

Please show your work.

[samsingh]

35. i'm not sure you understand my position

[jberryhill]

37. Okay, well....

The assertion under discussion here is that Barack Obama's presidential campaign was funded by corporations.

You have made a somewhat sideways reference to Citizen's United.

You have not connected these two things with any particular facts. Perhaps you would like to connect these two ideas by reference to some facts.

[jeff47]

39. Apparently you believe so little in your position

that you're unwilling to explain it.

[bunnies]

36. awwww.

bless your heart. Obama = Cheney. Aren't you cute.

[Godhumor]

41. The OP has left the building...

As flame-outs go, that one was kind of weak.

[brooklynite]

42. Actually, President Obama's campaign was funded by me...and my wife

We're 1%ers (really!) who contribute a lot to Democratic Candidates...in the hope that they'll raise our taxes (which he did); pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq (which he's doing); and support civil rights for everyone (which he's working on).

[MrSlayer]

43. Yeah, politics is full of corruption.

From the lowest court official to the president, they're all crooked. What's your point?

[stevenleser]

44. Buh Bye

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaseh2_helen-hunt-on-snl-1994-bbye_fun