PrintAugust 20, 2008
Obama's Denver Speech 'An Underground Sellout'
A Denver TV station ferreted out this story of how Obama's "free" Invesco Field acceptance speech is being used as a fundraiser - without the knowledge of most of his supporters.
Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, we find that the Obama campaign was using a hidden website to sell tickets to the event - in effect, cashing in on the fact that 75,000 people will show up to hear his mantra of hope and change:
Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, we find that the Obama campaign was using a hidden website to sell tickets to the event - in effect, cashing in on the fact that 75,000 people will show up to hear his mantra of hope and change:
The CBS affiliate in Denver discovered a hidden website that sold tickets to the Invesco Field acceptance speech by Barack Obama on August 29th, while Team Obama continued to deny that tickets were anything but free. Democratic activists complained to the reporters about Obama's sell-out:
Oddly enough, when CBS started asking questions, the site suddenly stopped offering tickets. What a coincidence!
If anyone wonders why Obama has gone into free fall this summer, this provides an easy explanation. Obama had no executive or military experience and no legislative track record in his three brief years in the US Senate. He sold Democrats on the notion that his New Politics would transform Washington. Since welching on his promise to remain in the public financing system, Obama has repeatedly proven that he's nothing more than a Chicago machine pol with no particular qualifications to run a state, let alone a nation.
Follow the link to Hot Air where Ed has posted a video of the story from the CBS affiliate in Denver.
A few months ago, I had an exchange of emails with Brad Smith, former FEC Commissioner, who told me that Obama would be crazy to reject federal financing. Brad said that Obama will now have to continue his fundraising activities all the way through to November, taking precious time and hours raising cash that could be better spent on the hustings.
McCain, meanwhile, gets $85 million the day after the GOP convention ends and won't have to worry about raising any more money for the rest of the contest. (Any money McCain has left from his fundraising before the convention cannot be used in the general election campaign.)
It shouldn't surprise us that Obama would lie to his own supporters about his "free" speech. If things continue to fall off, he may very well rue the day he refused public financing.
