Too bad we don’t have a category for blog posts called "Some people just can’t be pleased." If we did, I suspect the folks at Public Citizen would be regularly featured there.
By this point, everyone spends more than 3 seconds a day following campaign finance issues and politics understands that Senator Barack Obama is raising lots and lots of money. I sometimes wonder if the Obama campaign has had to build their own Money Bin, a la Scrooge McDuck.
Among the vehicles the Obama campaign is using to raise this mountain of money is something called "The Committee for Change." According to this Chicago Sun-Times article, money given to this committee is to be used to register voters and get out the vote for Democratic candidates in 18 key states. John Kerry had a similar committee, and it doesn’t look all that different (although I’m sure the particulars are) than the committee set up by the McCain campaign to raise big money for the Republican National Committee and four state Republican parties.
So what’s the problem? Well, nothing for those of us who expect Senator Obama (and Senator McCain, and any other candidate with money in the bank and a message to communicate to voters) to spend his time going around the country explaining why he’s the best choice to be our next president, and expects his campaign staff to do the same.
For those with… different… expectations for candidates, however, there is some disappointment that Senator Obama’s campaign isn’t dedicating time to satisfy their curiosity about what is going on at fundraising events. So Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times worries that the committee’s "fund-raising activities have been done out of sight," while Public Citizen’s Chris Holman (I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be Craig Holman) is concerned that while the Obama campaign has touted transparency as a virtue, "they should not shy away from telling the public what they are doing."
Apparently, full disclosure of donors isn’t enough to satisfy the "reform" community, they also need to be reassured that the campaign isn’t – well, I don’t know what exactly they think might be going on at these fundraising events. Perhaps Senator Obama leads the guests in belting out "It’s Rainin Money" sung to the tune of that old Gloria Gaynor classic?
I’m pretty sure the Obama campaign has better things to do with their time than keep Lynn Sweet and Chris (Craig?) Holman apprised of what goes on at their fundraising events. Lots of campaign activities take place behind closed doors – strategy and tactics meetings, policy discussions, reviewing polls, debate prep, etc. – and it’s absurd to demand that campaigns not have private events, fundraising or otherwise.
I’m a lot less interested in what goes on at these fundraising events filled with citizens who want to see their favored candidate elected, and a lot more interested in what the candidate proposes to do about issues I’m concerned with. The paranoid "reform" community apparently feels otherwise.
