The Audacity of Reform

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• Reader Comments (2)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  There is so much to be set right after 8 long and terrible years, that one hardly knows how to prioritize.

  But I’d say Joel is right here—this is a key issue and if we don’t get the money out our politics (not to say politicians) we will forever be allowed to exist according to corporate whims.

  And I mean that literally.

  Posted by lbyland on Mar 4, 2009 at 1:09 PM

  Unfortunately, the Obama campaign was a missed opportunity and a huge setback for campaign finance reform. It started with two leading candidates—both Obama and McCain—who claimed to favor reform, pledged to use public financing and work within campaign spending limits. McCain kept his promise. Obama didn’t, and went on to run the most expensive political campaign ever in the history of mankind.

  Obama spent more than the 2004 Bush and Kerry campaigns combined. Three-quarters of a BILLION dollars! And it was spent on the kind of marketing and branding that until recently has been the stock-in-trade of mega-corporations like The Gap and Audi and Delta Airlines. (And I didn’t just pull those names out of thin air—Obama’s branding agency, SS+K, has worked with exactly those companies, and is also partly owned by the Creative Artists Agency, which is the premier talent management company for A-list celebrities. Did anyone really believe that Obama’s money was being spent on giving good speeches?)

  The advertising industry now expects that from this point forward, they’ll be handed two cash cows every four years—one from the Republican side, and another from the Democratic. It’s a reasonable expectation. And each candidate will need to raise the billions of dollars to pay for it. The end result will be that ordinary Americans, especially the poor, will be even further disenfranchised from the political process.

  Campaign finance reform isn’t just removed from the top of the reform agenda—it’s OFF the agenda. Don’t expect Obama to revive something that he never supported in the first place.

  Posted by marcello09 on Mar 4, 2009 at 3:14 PM

  Page 1 of 1 pages

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