Clicking above will link you to a New York Times piece about Barack Obama’s fund raising for his 2012 campaign.
Eric Lichtblau writes:
Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid.
At least 15 of Mr. Obama’s “bundlers” — supporters who contribute their own money to his campaign and solicit it from others — are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies. They have raised more than $5 million so far for the campaign.
Because the bundlers are not registered as lobbyists with the Senate, the Obama campaign has managed to avoid running afoul of its self-imposed ban on taking money from lobbyists.
Lichtblau goes on to point out that Obama has been assisted financially by Sally Susman, an exec at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and David L. Cohen, “who oversees lobbying efforts for Comcast.” Both Susman and Cohen have reportedly raised over $500,000 apiece for the campaign.
Also made note of is the fact that no Republican candidate has even tried to distance himself from accepting money from federal lobbyists. So, while Republicans and the president are still basically doing the same thing, at least Obama has the decency to pretend he’s playing it straight–not that it really matters when you have a NYT article written about your implicit support from big business….
