Obama Charitable Giving, Part II

WOW! I think even republicans give more than that to charity.

In defense of Obama, it can be hard to find money for charity, especially when your on the receiving end. You know, the $300,000 from his bud Rezko. They may have only gave less than 1 percent of their earnings, but they gave 3.5 percent of his graft.

You CONVENIENTLY leave out the fact that Obama didnt become a PAID senator until 2005 January. Before that he was living in a small apartment and had his first child in 2000, and his second in 2003. Before becoming a US Senator He was working 2 jobs as a low paid state legislator as well as a teacher. His first book was out of print until 2005, and his second book wasn’t published until 2006. He made more than half his income off those books. All AFTER 2004.
By 2007 he had finished paying off his and his wife’s student loans.

This is going to be a long month

Well, I gave 0%, so Obama gave 1% more than me. Furthermore, he paid more federal income tax than most people did including their charitable contributions. Maybe if we were all taxed less we’d all give more to charity.

And this is reporting? Why don’t you report anything that McCain does? Like saying he doesn’t care what the public thinks about Iraq, its SUCCEEDING? WHy don’t you talk about his tax returns, and his divorce with his first wife? Oh… I forgot. YOu’re controlled by right-wing shills…
Please do some ACTUAL reporting for once and stop being a lackey for Limbaugh. I could care less what Obama or Hillary or McCain did in their tax returns. I care MORE for what they will DO for the COUNTRY. Afterall, its this type of stupidity that got us George W… because he was ‘just like us.’ Cover stories about the economy, and the war. I know you won’t, because that’s where it hurts the GOP.

Jake,
The “Obamas gave $240,000 to charity in 2007?”
Well, just about the time he was running for the presidency? Only then do they become “charitable.” Before that, they were downright cheap!
I am glad to hear that though, no sarcasm meant as to 2007.
I am a low income person doing public service and filing solo and I donated more than the Obamas combined in the prior years. LOL

One thing I’m curious about WRT charity and what’s declared on their taxes — how much were their school loan payments, and when did they pay things off? I don’t think that school loan interest is deductible, is it? (I think I heard that loans are paid or nearly paid, thanks to Barack’s book royalty payments.)
If they’re out from under their loans, does that free up money for charitable giving?

re: school loans… Aah, I see that Harko @ 5:56:21 pm aready went there.

That $240000 is the Rezko money that Obama was forced to return. Obama has no shame by claiming that money to be his own charitable contribution!!!

any simpleton knows that 240k is not a response to the 1% question. his income probably soared in ’07 due to book sales.
also – does this matter to anything? your column is getting pretty cheesy dude.

Who cares about charity donations in their tax returns. I’m interested in what the Obamas’ did to improve the lives of poor inner city Chicago residents. Remember the maxim: Think globally, act locally. Obama was so busy running for his next office that he never expressed a concern for his constituents. His wife, Vice President of whatever you want to call it – but make no mistake – saw her salary triple once her husband was elected to the US Senate (No shame there). Again, how did the lives of average or poor Chicagoans improve? They didn’t. U of Chicago Medical Center still employed draconian collection measures against poor, uninsured inner city residents (300 % markup of charges beyond what our insurers reimburse on our behalf). the Obamas, they were too busy running for the next office and socking money away.

Sen. Barack Obama requested $8 million for a military defense contractor that has close ties to one of his most prodigious fundraisers.
Obama disclosed the 2006 request on a long list of earmark requests his campaign made public. The $8 million was for something called a “High Explosive Air Burst Technology Program.” The request led to $1.3 million in funding for the program. According to the campaign’s earmark disclosure, the defense project was overseen by General Dynamics, one of the nation’s largest military contractors. Obama’s Illinois finance chairman, James S. Crown, serves on the company’s board of directors and his family holds a sizable stake in the company.
Crown and his wife, Paula Crown, are members of Obama’s National Finance Committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, according to a list of fundraisers posted on Obama’s campaign website.

“The Clintons represent the worst in modern American politics: ruthless ambition over a desire to serve; preoccupation with political funding over a fair system; opportunism over principle; betrayal of any cause or policy over taking a stand; and a desperation to gain and keep office over any obligation to honor its responsibilities.” –
Christopher Reed, in the Los Angeles Times.

Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton’s campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted.
A major fund-raiser for Democrats since 2003, Hsu became one of Clinton’s biggest bundlers – gathering scores of individual checks and sending them to her campaign. But since revelations last month that Hsu was a fugitive in a 15-year-old California fraud case, Clinton has said she would return the $850,000 she has taken from him and his associates.
In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records. There is nothing illegal about one politician steering wealthy contributors to another, but the New York senator’s close ties to Hsu have become an embarrassment for her and her campaign.

If it’s true, the Republicans should be happy. No-one who gives that percentage of their income to charity is going to introduce much socialist legislation.

Having people on your payroll to campaign…and mind you before all if this nonsense… is not a big deal for Clinton. She has a right to speak about all of this. If a member is on her payroll for some reason, it is no big deal. She said that Obama’s pastor would not have been hers and that you cannot equate family with who you CHOOSE as your religious guide. I do not see how that is hypocritical of her….as stated in a previous post.

Is it not possible that Obama’s income was finally to a point where he felt he could afford to donate more? I love how people complain about a family donating 250K to charity. What were the figures for 2005,06? Obviously more or they would have been included. I have a ton of student loans and want to help people on the street but I can’t. I look forward to the day that I can… Hillary IS ruining the party. Anyone that supports Hillary but says if she isn’t the nominee they will vote for McCain is a traitor, a liar, not a Democrat and doesn’t care an ounce of salt about our country. I’m disappointed that there are democrats so paralyzed by fear that they will vote for 4 more years of Bush policies. Ugh!!!!

$10,000 over 4 years then $240,000 in 2007. It couldn’t be that Obama knew his 2007 return would be especially scrutinized could it? That he was preparing for the election and this was one more way to woo the masses? Nah, couldn’t be.

It would be nice to hear some stuff on what has been coming out of McCain’s mouth lately.

Interesting tidbit but not really significant:
Although the Obamas had more money in 2005 and 2006, their returns show that they did not check off the $3 voluntary donation to the presidential election campaign fund, which helps underwrite the costs of campaigns. Obama has said in the past that he supports public financing of presidential campaigns

I think Obama is afraid, and he felt guilty that he didn’t donate much to charity, so he pretends to donate more. Who knows if the money is just to return the dirty money got from Rezko. Another reason is that, he knows he wants to run presidency, so he SUDDENLY becomes good.
I never trust the person who SUDDENLY becomes good.
I want to see a person who contributed to the society for the whole life time to be president, either Hillary, or McCain.
Obama, no way!
I don’t like seeing somebody going shortest path, to become president so easily, PERIOD.
Hm.

I’m willing to bet that Obama’s charitable contributions are to the Trinity United Church of Christ, which paid for Reverend Wright’s golden retirement parachute, who in turn was given a job on Obama’s campaign, and who in turn shoveled a large chunk of change right back to Obama. I wish the press would do their job.

You guys are nuts. All of you. Is all this whining and moaning worth it? Nobody cares.

It looks like Obama is having to deal with more issues than how much he donated to charity.
Now, he is being asked to remove Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak as his military advisor and national campaign co-chairman. This is the same General that blasted Bill Clinton for his comments against Bill Richardson.

lol didn’t Mrs Obama complain in the press about how they were struggling to make ends meet? And, oh, it’s the tax return they’re preparing now that will show more giving to charity? How about Mrs Obama’s huge pay raise?

Obama has been trashing Clinton since early January about not having released her recent tax returns – they are not required by any law but he pretends there’s something nefarious about the fact that she hasnt released them – accusations that he pressed harder and harder to divert attention as he got into more and more trouble about Rev. Wright. He just kept demanding more and more documents despite the hundreds of thousands of documents already public on her extensive years of public service (could Kenneth Star do a better slime job based soley on speculation and innuendo with NO facts to support him?) – and today we find out that Obama JUST NOW RELEASED HIS TAX RETURNS LAST NIGHT?!? I guess we know why his book is was entitled “Audacity of Hope”. He supplies the audacity and hopes nobody will notice that he is the biggest hypocrit ever to run for office.

Does anyone have the clip of Obama, as he was running for the U.S. Senate answering quite convincingly that he would never be ready to run for President in 2008 because he would have to start running as soon as he got in offie? I saw it once on TV but haven’t seen it since and want to spread it around – just one more example of the huge disparity between his compelling Rhetoric and what he actually believes / does.

How is this news?
We are in silly season now!
This girl never voted for Barack Obama. She’s an actress starting in the video.

Hillary’s former pastor defends Jeremiah Wright and says he’s an outstanding churcch leader…
“He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton told a gathering of the campaign press corps, repeating a line she used earlier in the day on a Pittsburgh radio program. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.”
But the pastor at the church that Clinton did once attend has recently expressed public support for Wright. He’s even proclaimed it a “grave injustice” to make a judgment on Wright based off of “two or three sound bites,” and criticized those who would “use a few of [Wright's] quotes to polarize.”
Last week, Dean Snyder, the senior minister at the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. — which the Clintons famously attended while in the White House — released a little noticed statement offering a sympathetic defense of the totality of Wright’s work.
“The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times,” Snyder wrote. “He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize.”

if Obama get the nomination, it will be the uglist thing in history.
because Democrats don’t know it is necessary for a president candidate to love America unconditionally.
At least he cannot comfortablely listen to “God damn America.”for 20 years.
Democrats don’t know what is forgivable, what is unforgivable.
Shame!

Notice that is Obama who generated the racial, religious and other issues into the media.
Him living with the consequences and out come of that are justified.
He also has displayed tendencies not to be able to Address the American people as one. He always wants to address everything and keep things as different for the poor/rich Black/white African -American and does not accept all faiths as citizens right to choose.
I think he needs time to come to terms with his own personal problems, views and ideas, before he can ever try to work with a nation.

My thanks to Mike in Texas for the interesting blog about Obama (the pop star) and his many exaggerations. The tv media are ripping up Senator Clinton this morning about her Bosnia gaffe, but as always remain careful and polite in their remarks about Obama, which are almost always positive except on Fox News (Hannity doesn’t see him as an American Idol star, and I don’t either.)

“Obama campaign spox Tommy Vietor writes to note that even though their 2007 tax return is not yet ready, the Obamas “gave $240,000 to charity in 2007.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder if this is the money Obama received from Rezko and then was pressured into giving to charity??

After all of Bill Clinton’s accomplishments during 8 years in the White House, his widespread popularity even after he left his job, his fundraising efforts following the tsunamis and Katrina, Mrs. Clinton’s attempt to pass universal health care well before it was a popular, her successful (and at least, full!) term in the Senate, how can anyone say that the Clintons are just political junkies running slash and burn campaigns, and promoting only own self interests? Though they clearly relish politics, and Bill Clinton has a few well known and overly discussed personal appetites, they are two people who care about each other and have been committed to serving their country since they were teenagers. The invidious attacks they continue to be subjected to speak more to the character of those who misrepresent them than to the character of the Clintons.

Rhetoric pure and simple. Charity? No. A means to an end. A career path. Who’s is better? At least I respect Bill and Hillary for the economic works and world class charity they have done. Has Obama put glasses on people in third world countries by setting up small business loans for AMERICAN entrepeneurs? BILL DID. Did Obama do anything for the economy of IL with out working with criminals? Will we find out before he gets to the WHITE HOUSE?
I don’t care if Hillary didn’t get a paycheck or a job description other than FIRST LADY. Arkansas was better off when they left it, than when they started there. I know I worked there then. And AMERICA was financially better off when the Clintons left the white house. So what matters? THE JOB. Let Hillary do the job. Bow out OBAMA. Your a ringer. Not the real deal. America’s first Black President needs to be the real deal. You’re going to lead this country into real DIVISIVENESS just by pretending to be someone you’re not. And then where will racism in this country be? Let the Economy be the real issue.

Who really cares about this? This story is for those simple minds who are looking for reasons to hate. Just how much money should they have given? What figure would have satisfied you? Answer: There is no amount that would have been enough.

What a surprise, see libs are generous with your taxes but not with their own money!!
I guess all joke are routed in the truth
A Republican and a Dem are walking down the street they come upon a bum sitting on the street, The Republican gives the bum a dollar and a application for a job, the Dem says wow, and trying not to be out done they continue walking and come across another bum, the dem pickpockets the republican and gives 25% of the money to the bum and the rest he tells the bum is to go to the unions!

You people are nuts. How much have the Clinton’s given? What did Bill and Hillary give to charity? I don’t mean now either!!! I mean what did they give then! And, then tell us what they give now – and not through that foundation which mostly serves foreign people!! Anyway, there is no law that says people have to give their hard earned money. The one thing I can’t stand is a stupid voter.

Funny how no one is mentioning McCain nor Clinton released their tax returns. For all I know, they may not have given anything to charity. And another thing, I would love to see most of the posters tax returns to see how much you all gave to charity yourselves. It’s so sad that there is division in the Democratic party and even more sad that space is being wasted to discuss an issue that has nothing to do with this political contest.

Cheapo,
Cheapo,
CheapObama

Mrs. Sarah Palin’s(the darling of the evangelical right) 2007 % Charitable contributions over her AGI is 2.01%. 2.01%!!! She’s on the bottom end of average giving for churchgoers!!! What happened to our 10% tithe?!! Sapphira!! Most of that, $2,500, being a NON-CASH (read tax reducing) contribution to the salvation army. – Ezra E.