Will Obama keep his promise on public funding?

A recent New York Times article discussed an issue that we recently talked about in class, that being whether Obama will keep his word on only using public funding for the general election campaign if he gets the Democratic nomination. According to the article, Obama's recent statements on the issue do not seem too comforting. With his tremendous private fundraising capabilities, Obama is probably starting to regret his oath from early last year as he seems to be less clear as to what he will do. This will be a test of integrity for Obama, but as mentioned in class, either way it's not going to severely damage his campaign because the average American does not know about campaign finance.

IRS Investigating Obama's United Church Of Christ

The IRS has recently begun investigating the United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago which Barack Obama attends, over a speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president, the denomination said Tuesday.


The article states:

The IRS has stepped up its monitoring of the political activity of nonprofit groups during the 2008 election. It is more common for individual congregations to be targeted, not entire denominations, but very large ministries have been investigated in the past.

The inquiries can take years. Punishments can range from a financial penalty to loss of tax-exempt status -- an outcome that church attorneys call the "death penalty" for nonprofits.

This investigation goes hand in hand with our recent discussions about the different types of organizations and the limits of their political actions and spending.

Obama and Interest Groups

The New York Times recently reported that many interest groups are supporting Obama's run for the Democratic nomination. It says that Obama has asked these groups to stop supporting him and instead channel funds into the offical campaign, but they have not followed his advice. Obama, who has mentioned many times how he would run a White House untainted by special interests, needs this money and support because of the sheer scale of Super Tuesday. It will be interesting how this plays out as voters hear that "special interests" are providing Obama with money and support.