Friday, April 11, 2008
Chintzy Saint Obama Spins
To high rolling Obama, volunteers should get out the vote just for the sheer bliss of seeing him win the Democratic nomination; and if they're real good, maybe they'll get a kiss to boot.
That's right, Los Angeles Times reports that Obama is refusing to pay up:
Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling theIt's the principle of the matter, don't you know, like the same lofty code of ethics that compelled Camp Obama to stiff a poor myspace guy back in 2007.
local bosses he won't pay.
Not familiar with the story? Here, let Micah L. Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum tell you the story about Joe Anthony who started a "barackobama homepage."
At the time, Anthony only wanted to be paid for the blood, sweat and tears he invested along with his own $39,000.How all this happened is a complicated tale that is still unfolding, and none of the parties involved--Anthony, the Obama online team, and the MySpace political operation--emerge from this story unscathed. Speaking on background, Obama campaign staffers are spreading word that Anthony just wanted a "big payday."
Anthony in turn has posted a missive on his blog (that was originally sent to me as an email) accusing the Obama team of "bullying...[and] rotten and dishonest" behavior. However one parses those accusations (more below), the Obama campaign's reputation as the most net-savvy of 2008 has taken a big hit.
But in a gleam of coming attractions by Camp Obama, Jerome Armstrong of MyDD commented on the whole sordid affair back in May 2007:
Here's another thought: Obama has poured millions and millions of dollars into Pennsylvania and you can bet that he knows he's going to get trounced by Hillary. Just like Chris Matthews pointed out on "Morning Joe," with so many undecideds in Pennsylvania, Team Obama is headed for a big loss.Yea, $49K to deliver 160,000 supporters; that's .32 cents each for opted in and engaged activsts. A bargain. [The amount was actually up to $44K] $50,000 is what it takes to advertise on the Liberal Ad Network for two weeks. It's a minor expenditure in the grand scheme of things. But instead:
I was accused of using this profile for commercial purposes. I was threatened that I would be responsible if the profile was deleted (they even followed up via email to be sure I knew it was my fault!) The conversation really was about them taking control of the profile. There was no counter offer, or anything to suggest that they had any intention of paying me anything at all.[...]
Whatever the case, at this point it appears the Obama people simply decided that they would get control of the myspace.com/barackobama url by going around Anthony and getting MySpace to lock down his access to it. In their view, Anthony was violating MySpace's terms of service by falsely representing himself as Obama, and thus they didn't have to pay him anything. The worst that would happen, they reasoned, is that they would have to rebuild the candidate's network of friends.
No matter. Obama can now blame his defeat on all those precinct captains who didn't get out the vote because he stood his ground; the majestic ground of knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them and knowing when to play the media for the suckers that they are.
Folks, voters in Pennsylvania, with or without any walking money, ain't buying Obama's shtick. And equal to the city precinct captains and poor Anthony, Democrats who vote for Obama will find themselves on the short end of the stick.
