Obama Commends DNC for Cutting Lobbyist Contributions
EmailABC News’ Sunlen Miller Reports: In his first public campaign event since the end of the primary season, Sen. Barack Obama referred to himself twice as the Democratic nominee at a town hall in Bristol, Virginia.
Calling the Democratic Party as "my party", Obama referenced the DNC’s decision not to take contributions from federal lobbyists and PACs, saying he "sent a strong signal" by refusing contributions from those entities.
"We will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACS – we’re going to change how Washington works. They will not fund my party, they will not run our White House, and they will not drown out the voice of the American people when I am president of the United States of America," Obama said.
Obama commemorated the end of the primary season with a nod to his Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton, who he described as "outstanding".
"Obviously we’ve had a pretty exciting 48 hours here. This is on the heels of a 16 month, 54 primary and caucus campaign–a historic campaign that involved outstanding candidates, none more outstanding than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton," Obama said. "I congratulate her on her great achievement, and I know I’m a better candidate because I ran against her. She’s tough."
Obama then declared that his pride, calling his historic candidacy "a sign of enormous growth" for the nation.
"I stand before you as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America….I’m very proud of that, and I’m proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know that it’s a sign of enormous growth in this country. But we’ve still got work to do. Just winning the nomination is not the endpoint. The end point isn’t even winning the general election. The endpoint is making your lives better."
Obama’s remarks focused on healthcare, and he took multiple swipes at Senator McCain’s health care plan calling it the "John McCain-Bush lite healthcare system” and saying it would only benefit the "healthy and the wealthy."
During the Question and Answer session, Obama met a 95-year-old African American man, whose daughter told Obama that he had waited his whole life for this moment.
The man wobbled slowly to the stage and presented Obama with a maple wood walking stick as a gift.
The presumptive democratic nominee, clearly feeling his oats, took the stick and said, "If members of congress don’t pass my health care bill – I’ll whoop ‘em, I’ll whoop ‘em. That’s right, you better not mess with me, and I’ll have that stick."
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Change is coming to America! We are taking our country back! I have never been so grateful and excited!!!
Posted by: Hippemom | June 5, 2008, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
obama’s biggest contributors.
energy companies.
investment banks
trail lawyers
Posted by: trettione | June 5, 2008, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
Obama might applaud cutting the lobbyists contibutions but he sure is going to owe a LOT of other people and they are more scary than the lobbyist..Change is coming if he’s elected but it’s frightening to think what that might be.
Posted by: paula | June 5, 2008, 3:16 pm 3:16 pm
You are wrong trettione. The American people are his biggest contributors.
Posted by: Hippemom | June 5, 2008, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
Hillary and Obama are very different. There is a dream, a goal for America marching ahead of OBAMA. He is only a symbol and his presidentship will be a path to be traversed towards that dream.
But marching ahead of HILLARY is her own dream of becoming American president.America’s dream is secondary to her. So please do not enter in to a “dream ticket” of convenience. Let the nation’s march go on.
Posted by: Kuriakose Pilkeel | June 5, 2008, 3:37 pm 3:37 pm
Why don’t all of you fear/hate mongerers who spend WAAAY too much time thinking up crap to spew on the internet, GIVE IT A REST! We don’t always have to be in a state of complete conflict with each other in this country. Reserve the combativeness for our true enemies. Let’s move ahead.
Posted by: Unity | June 5, 2008, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
You can stamp and whine all you want about Obama, but you’d better get ready for a big change this November, and then you can spend the next 8 years complaining about the government. It’s your turn. As usual, a Democrat will have to come in and fix the deficit, create jobs, make sure the little guy gets a shot, create an atmosphere of tolerance instead of religious bigotry, and by virtue of this encourage technological growth and progress. What a bummer for you…
Posted by: Bob Dobolino | June 5, 2008, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
That news GREATLY GLADDENS my heart about Barack Obama!
Posted by: KYJurisDoctor | June 5, 2008, 4:18 pm 4:18 pm
Some PACs dont need to contribute to get the things done. AIPAC… The israel lobby is the most powerfull in this country. Wake up americans, Israel holds more power in this country than all the 50 States togather.
Posted by: Aaron | June 5, 2008, 4:30 pm 4:30 pm
check out the real world news.. ranked and categorized impartially.
http://www.faceoftruth.com
Posted by: truth liberates | June 5, 2008, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
Yeah he was tied to Resko the Governor maker of Illinoi. He was pandering shamelessly to the AIPAC Israel Lobby and promised 3 Billion to the lobby from the tax payers money. So much BS obama
Posted by: resko | June 5, 2008, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
“Heard on the news today that, over the past 15 years…has quietly been the recipient of $15,000,000 of our tax dollars! Do you think anybody should ask Obama if he had anything to do with getting that “church” this money?”
…that’s a joke, right? If not, it’s so astonishingly ill-informed as to be laughable. Obama, as the conservative talking heads love to point out as lack of experience, hasn’t been in the Senate for anything near 15 years. He was in the Illinois legislature before that, but that doesn’t have an impact on “our” tax dollars.
Secondly, the Bush administration and the Republican majority in power in both houses of Congress until 2006 were the biggest boost to federal funding of churches in recent memory. Does “faith-based” charities sound familiar? No, I suppose not.
Posted by: mary | June 5, 2008, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
I have no doubt that Rev. Wright in an opportunist. He is causing much trouble within his own church now. It is possible that over the years he has changed a lot. He has been respected by many people in this country. He would not have been invited to the White House for Bill Clinton if he wasn’t. No one can just get an invite to the White House, especially at such an painful time. Face it, something apparently went wrong along the way with Rev. Wright. On the federal funds, it is very common place for urban organizations to get federal funds for education program and other social needs. All you need is a good proposal. Those programs have helped many people. Don’t punish them or Obama for Rev. Wright. And don’t forget that when he first got to Chicago, he had never lived in a big American inner city. Life in Chicago was very different from anything he had ever experiened. He did not have to stay. He left to go to law school and came back to contribute to a community that was forsaken. That took a lot of heart and guts. How many of us would use an ivy league law degree on one of the poorest and criminal ridden areas of this country.
Posted by: JPayne | June 5, 2008, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
JHC-
I was thinking the same thing. These poor Obama haters. They are proof that No Child Left Behind is a colossal failure.
Posted by: Suedehead | June 5, 2008, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
I doubt anyone is going to convince others to change thier minds on the comment board for the teevee.
Hopefully all of this energy is being channeled into actually donating money or volunteering for your choosen candidate. If not, this is a lot of armchair politics. Good grief America.
Posted by: Sushi | June 5, 2008, 8:04 pm 8:04 pm
Obama did not say “whoop” but “whop”, which is the correct english for striking a blow.
Posted by: AH | June 5, 2008, 9:43 pm 9:43 pm
Hippemom – you are wrong and Trettione is right. About 30-40% of his contributions come from the individual doners of <$200. PACS make up a very small amount of donations (<1%), so prohibiting them is no big deal.“Industry PACs may not give directly to his campaign, but employees of industries may do so, and many of his contributors have come from executives and their spouses. For example, Mr. Obama leads all candidates in donations from the pharmaceutical industry and commercial banks, among other industries.” According to the Center for Responsive Politics he has received: $528,765 (pharmaceutical industry); $1,380,108 (commercial banks); $13,690,170 (lawyers). [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120787159467506509.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks]
No lobbyists get-around: The top 5 contributors to Obama’s campaign are unregistered law partners (of law firms registered as lobbyists), who are heavily involved with the financials firms underwriting subprime mortgages.
Posted by: Cd1234567891 | June 6, 2008, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm