As the entire state.  Our Illinois state govt. is very, very corrupt.  Our last governor is in prison and our current governor is worse (and well on his way to prison).

Obama is REMARKABLY clean for someone who came through our state govt

This is how "overzealous" street people get "encouraged" to bring out the dead vote.

Box lunches given out at the polls, etc,etc...

And if that particular street-level person wants a "Future" in the Party, he had damn well better deliver.

This is TAMMANY HALL stuff, and it's time has LONG past.

How does one distinguish the old machine patronage system from ligitimate expenses?  Just say no.

Axelrod, Plouffe, the pollsters, the advertising writers, the office managers, the telephone installers, and other people working on the campaign all get paid.  I know that because I installed some telephones for a campaign once, and got paid.  What is happening is these GOTV folks who are going to pound the pavement all day want to get paid too, and unlike the millionaire pollsters and (well) thousandaire phone installers, they are often dirt broke and the 50-100 bucks they hope to collect is likely to go straight into their rent or food bills or put gas in the car.  

So instead of paying those guys Obama is going to spend the money on TV ads, forking it over to TV networks who are like arms dealers selling stuff to both sides, but at the end of the day are almost all Republican-controlled.  Or get out-of-state volunteers who will come across like scab labor.

I understand the objection to paying canvassers in some places while relying on volunteers in other places but really, it's just a tactical decision, no longer a matter of high principle as soon as there's anybody on the campaign getting paid one cent.  One could say it's not all that fair to people who volunteered to canvass.  I can't speak for all of them but I've done some volunteer canvassing in the past basically because I could afford to.  If folks who can't afford to do it for free collect a few bucks for the work, I'm personally ok with that.  There may be another thing going on where a lot of the $$ is going into Cadillacs for the ward bosses, but that's a different matter.

It's who controls how the money is spent!  This is exactly how we wound up with a giant cash sucking machine in Iraq with no accountability.  I am confident he'll be sure that folks are taken care of but there's no reason for him to go through the Dem machine if he can control the results of how the money is spent within his own campaign organization.  This is brilliant.  I can't wait for his inauguration.

The Harrisburg HQ had plenty of food when I was there a few weeks ago.

Verry interesting. I had no idea how widespread this practice is. Good on Obama for refusing to take part and bringing it to light.

diarist should add this video into his extended entry above.