Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Lo Ling; listening to: the refrigerator hum; 11:38 AM; DB; feeling: like I want to know more


Alright.

So recently Barack Obama opted out of the federal system, turning down the $84.1 million in public financing for the last stretch of this presidential campaign. Well, with the “hundreds of millions” of dollars in private donations he is estimated to be racking up*—I guess I couldn’t blame him.


Or could I?


I guess the big deal here, besides that he is the first major-party candidate to do so in the 32-year-history of the federal system (that’s CHANGE for you), is the simple fact that he had at one time “committed to public financing” ** in a campaign questionnaire last November.



So what, right.


--So before I go any further please let me say, it is only so long before voting day, and by now most everyone I talk to (who cares) has made up their minds on who they support—but I haven’t. And as with all things, I want to know that when I finally do make that decision, it will be sound and just. So as I continue in a second to lay out my concerns and qualms and comments on this recent development, I hope that you take the time to give me your thoughts and opinions on this matter, because that is really what I am asking for with this. Like I said, I haven’t made my decision, so I can’t be writing this to persuade you in any which way. And I’m not asking to be persuaded either. I want your opinions, your information, honest and hopefully fair, so that I can make my most informed decision.



Alright. Obama switched to private funding.

So what, right.

So…

For me that’s kind of a big deal.

When it comes to me and who I am to the people around me, I like knowing that someone can trust what I say as exactly what I mean (jokes and sarcasm aside), without having to worry about whether my actions will show themselves in a completely opposite way. That’s just me. What’s making me uneasy isn’t that Barack is choosing private funds. It is that he said he would not—and now he is.

Again, I’m putting this out there because I’m asking for different perspectives. Should I really be concerned? After all, his decision to go with private funding does show that this guy is go-gettin’, willing to do what it takes to win this thing. And at this point that’s what it’s about right, winning. So I gather that I can trust that this man sees his ambitions out to the end, including all his campaign proposals. That’s promising…


Except it gets less promising for me when I’m reminded of his statements made in 2004, when he claimed that “he and Bush didn’t have "much of a difference" on Iraq,” only to later focus much of his presidential campaign on his “pre-war opposition to the conflict.”***



Is it unreasonable for me to ask for consistency in political campaigns? Is he just the better candidate because he knows what to say when? Do I place too much value on sticking to one’s commitments? Was this that big of a commitment? But should that matter? (Okay the fact that Word didn’t catch the error when I had written “too one's" instead of “to one's” is making me nervous…)


I just feel that I am being led to believe that Obama is showing himself to be of a capricious nature. Though I respect this in the antics of my friends and close compadres, whose only capricious decisions vacillate between rushing off to some kickback or showing up at my house with a variety of props for a haphazard photoshoot, —when it comes to running things of a more serious nature I’ve always looked for constancy and reliability. But again—if you realize you are being constant with a bad decision maybe there is no use for that constancy at all. I am so good at refuting myself. -_- I guess that’s what makes me fair. I’m okay with that. Okay enough tangent talk.



On the one hand I feel that sure, quick as he is to change his mind, or “go back on his word” (the more loaded, hyperbolic way to state this haha,) again, this shows his dedication to achieving that which he has set out to accomplish.


I’m still not sure how honorable this is, given the context. Like McCain said, (hahah) "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people."



I guess my biggest unsettlement (I just invented that word and by process of roots you still know what I mean =) ) lies in whether this is a question of honor at all. Hello, this is politics…



All in all the more I talk about it the more it seems to me that this isn’t that big of a deal. (Or is it!? AH!) Given Barack's position I’m sure many of us would do the same thing. If I did, though I’m not how sure I would, but if I did, I’d at least send out an apology. Hahah. I realize that like I stated before, this capriciousness is not on the scale of a makeshift photoshoot but rather concerns the future of a nation. My conflict is if by not seeing this as a big deal I am compromising the value I hold to the weight of one’s words. Barack had claimed a commitment, meaning that he wouldn’t go back on his word. Again. Loaded. Who’s to say McCain wouldn’t do the same given he had billions of funding. Or would he. Which brings up another point. Would I respect, or trust Obama more knowing that he had the opportunity to spend millions more changing the electoral map (most of his money will be going to campaigning in red states), fighting for a win, but instead chose to stick to his commitment to the federal system?



On a more certain note,

IN THE END I’m pretty sure that if John McCain sticks with HIS proposal to end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling…

That is one example of where I don’t give a rat's ass (yeah I said it!) that you’re sticking to your word. Because “end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling” are some damn ugly words that in my opinion deserve NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER. But that is for another blog.
(Here’s some professional opinion on that.)



Oh.

And it is very interesting to me to see how when it comes to something this big, like presidential elections, how so many small things like how your campaign is being financed becomes such a big deal.



But I’m asking you, is it?



*http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
**http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
***http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-holmes21-2008jun21,0,6482475.story