TPM is reporting that MoveOn.org will not use 527s, in response to Obama's efforts to keep 527s out of the election. Obama wants the campaign to be about ordinary people, and not about loopholes where unaccoutnable big-time donors can tilt the playing field if they just flash enough cash.
This, my friends, is huge -- and it is a call for supporters to step up to the plate.
We know the GOP 527s will be coming. McCain is on record as opposing them, as Obama is, but none of the shady swift-boating operatives has done anything remotely like what MoveOn is doing here. Obama's rejection of public financing is sure to steel the resolve of the anti-Obama 527s to stay in the race -- because they know McCain could never match Obama in GE cash outside of public financing, even if his major donors average 10x what Obama donors tend to give.
Obama's decision to spurn public financing has generated a lot of flak. Some, like the NYT, seem to prefer a broken and biased system to anything new. But remember this: Obama's campaign is about people, not power. The current system gives powerful donors undue sway by allowing them to channel money through 527s, and disincents the effort to solicit small donors since the public spending to-be-matched limit can be easily reached by tapping big donors.
What does it mean? It means it's time to step up. Back in February, when a bunch of political hacks realized that their dreams of power and glory within a Clinton administration were about to go up in smoke and put together a multimillion dollar 527 called the American Leadership Project, I made my myBO fundraising page a call to answer the ALP's efforts with small donations (featuring the digits, 5, 2, and 7 (among others), for the sake of poetry) directly to the campaign.
With the developments of a last couple of days -- a pro-Dem 527 rightfully laying down arms even as pro-GOP 527s are revving up -- it is time once again to show what we can do, and to empower Obama to speak with our voice.
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