| Vol. 3 No. 13 June 26, 2008 |
| Reflections/Jonathan Gramling Obama and Butler |
| I am conflicted by U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s decision to forego public financing of his general election campaign in favor of private campaign contributions. Under public campaign financing, Obama, the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, would have received $85 million for the fall presidential contest, the same amount that U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, will receive. Instead, he has opted to depend upon the pool of over 1.5 million donors he has amassed over the past year. Estimates are that he could raise up to $300 million for the general election. Now I believe in the public financing of presidential elections. I religiously check the box on my Form 1040 each year indicating I want some of my income tax funds to go into the presidential campaign fund pool. I feel that it is important to keep big money out of presidential contests — or state Supreme Court contests for that matter. While campaign finance reform won’t be a cure-all for our electoral system, it could curb our excesses and economically make me feel that we have ‘one person, one vote’ once again. Obama bolting away from public financing — something he committed to earlier — sends the signal that ‘I believe in public financing unless I feel assured I can raise more money than the other candidate.’ It’s something McCain can use in the general election against Obama. It brings into question Obama’s reform credentials. But there is something that Obama said in a press release after he rejected public financing that is instructive. “It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections," the statement said. "But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system." We only really have to look back to the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Justice Louis Butler, an African American, and Judge Michael Gabelman to understand Obama’s statement. For Butler, an African American candidate, it was important for him to be able to have some control over his own image. He crisscrossed the state speaking before a diverse range of organizations and raised as much money as he legally and appropriately could to put out his message and control the image that was presented to the public. I think Butler would have been perfectly satisfied to accept public financing of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. While the candidates were fairly matched in terms of dollars that they raised, Wisconsin Manufac-turers and Commerce and other special interest groups spent millions on the Supreme Court Race. While it must be said that money was spent both for and against Butler, the preponderance of the messages were against Butler. And it was the sinister nature of the ads against Butler with their subtle racial overtones that I feel were most damaging against Butler. Those ads put out by Gabelman and WMC appealed to the base racial attitudes in some of Wisconsin’s electorate to tip the scales against Butler. Butler was the first incumbent justice to lose in 40 years and he lost by a margin of 51-49 percent. In the closest of elections, Butler lost control of his image in a racially charged manner by people outside of his opponent’s campaign organization. In the annals of our nation’s history, I would put money on the statement that it is the image of the African American man who has been the most maligned. From Mandingo warrior to Willie Horton, the image of African American men has been, to a large extent, outside of their control and negatively manipulated to serve the purposes of those in power, economically and politically — Euro-American males. So it is no surprise that Barack Obama has rejected public campaign financing for the fall election. And who can really blame him? He is a Black man in America. And while he and John McCain would have the same $85 million to spend under public financing, if the 2004 election is instructive, there would be the 527 committees with Republican leanings just waiting to “swift boat” Obama with racially-tinged advertising that may appeal to 5-10 percent of the Euro-American population in a tightly-contested election. And if he accepted public financing, he would be effectively powerless to combat the distortion of his image as a Black man in America. It is wise for Obama to forego the public funds. Let’s see how things shake out after November. |
| The Warrior Ethos and the U.S. Military WPT's Patty Loew and "Way of the Warrior" |