What should we think about the 6 million dollar Obama “infomercial” and reports of a record busting $150 million September fund raising of which $100 million was raised though he internet? If you didn’t know the candidates, traditional thinking would have you believe that Obama is a republican that is far outperforming his opponent in fundraising. How the times have changed, suddenly, like since April 2008 to be more specific. For those of us who are not familiar with the power of Internet commerce, this is our rude awakening. Before we explore that subject, a little history on Obama / McCain campaign finance.

At the outset and during the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama discussed several times about campaign finance and ethics reform. He was in strong favor of public assistance for both parties during the presidential campaign. No doubt that that this stance was originally driven by the belief that the playing field would be somewhat level since republicans normally out perform the democrats in fundraising. John McCain being the person he is, agreed to use public financing which ultimately limited his private donations. Earlier John McCain had already played his cards with a campaign finance reform bill (McCain-Feingold) that increased individual contributions to campaigns but limited contributions of soft money. Soft money is considered donations to such organizations as 527’s that are not directly affiliated to a candidate or political party (IE: Swift Boat Vets). These factors set the stage for a beautifully executed plan by the Democratic Party and the Obama Campaign.

            Given the status of McCain’s agreement to public financing and tamping down the 527’s, Barack Obama couldn’t resist the temptation to break from his commitment to public financing in order to gain the upper hand. Well before April 2008, the democratic machine had already had a financing plan in place, the Internet. Internet commerce allows individuals to contribute funds by charge cards and debit cards. Whoa, prepaid debit cards can be bought by anyone, even those that are not allowed to contribute (IE foreign nationals) or individuals that want to contribute far more than allowed by law. How convenient, let whoever donate whatever they want without a single trace to the origin of those funds. Let’s use a fraction of our imagination; did people like George Soros, Michael Moore, and others limit their legal contributions to $30K? Did special interest or even foreign nationals finance Obama’s campaign? We shall never know, but what we do know what’s really different, that Barack Obama has raised over $600 million which mostly came through the Internet. In April Obama said, “I would like to see a system (Campaign Finance) preserved. And I intend, if I am the nominee, to have conversations with Senator McCain about how to move forward in a way that doesn’t allow third parties to overwhelm the system.” I guess we are still waiting on that conversation with Senator McCain. Obama also said he believed his campaign has created “a parallel public financing system,”

I for one believe that Barack Obama and the Democratic Machine have created an untraceable, maybe illegal, parallel public financing system that overwhelmed McCain’s campaign finance due to third parties. Additional Obama comments from an interview April 2008 following this link to the NY Times: