Astro-turfing Donations

The news that Barack Obama raised $150 million in campaign donations in September beggars the imagination. At least it would if a person didn't know the back story:

Turns out that “Doodad Pro” and “Good Will” are not the only phony contributors to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The New York Times finally bestirred itself to apply some basic investigative journalism attention to the Democratic presidential nominee’s donor list. The Times found nearly 3,000 other questionable donors like “Jgtj Jfggjjfgj” and “Dirty West” after what the paper admitted was just a cursory look at the Illinois senator’s September financial filings. But then Times reporters Michael Luc and Griff Palmer revealed an incredible level of naivety by stating “it is unclear why someone making a political donation would want to enter a false name.”

Unclear? What other motive could there be for using a phony name and a nonexistent address to make multiple small donations using a single credit card than to evade U.S. election laws? Such journalistic gullibility may explain why bloggers have been on this story for months and the Times is only now noticing.

Then there’s the question of whether foreign nationals are contributing to the Obama campaign. There is more than enough evidence to warrant a full-scale investigation by the Federal Election Commission, including the $32,332.19 that appears to have come from two brothers living in a Hamas-controlled Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah, GA (that’s Gaza, not Georgia). The brothers’ cash is part of a flood of illegal foreign contributions accepted by the Obama campaign. Potentially at issue, according to a complaint filed last week by the Republican National Committee, is as much as half of the $427 million he’s already collected.

Well, John McCain is partially responsible for the election laws that are now biting him in the ass, so I guess payback is a bitch. However, I think fraud was always illegal.

This, along with ACORN registering everyone from the dead to Mickey Mouse, is politicking, Chicago style. It used to be they bought an election or they stole an election. Hey! Why choose? Why not do both?

It is a sad thing that if Obama wins, it will never be known whether he could have won fair and square. And if McCain wins against all the odds, it will be blamed on racism.