Another day, another desperate email from Team Lightbringer:
Stephen —
I’m the national finance director here at OFA.
I know we’ve been sending you a lot of email lately. That’s because we’re staring down a critical fundraising deadline tomorrow at midnight.
You know what that means for your inbox, but let me give you a sense of what that looks like around here.
The staff and I are working around the clock, powered by too much coffee. It’s been way too long since we called our moms. And we’ve all had more pizza and bad takeout in the past few weeks than anyone should have in a year.
No one’s complaining; that’s what we signed up for. And we’re not doing this just because it’s our job to make sure the campaign has the resources it needs. We’re doing this because it’s part of what defines this movement.
From the beginning, we’ve refused to take money from D.C. lobbyists and corporate special interests. Our operation is fueled by people inspiring each other to take ownership of this campaign.
That’s why we’ve been emailing this week, and that’s why I’m obligated to remind you once more that the deadline is coming up in a matter of hours.
If you’re able to, will you chip in just $3 today?
https://donate.barackobama.com/Friday-Deadline
For all of us here at HQ, and all of the staff and volunteers across the country counting on these resources, I really appreciate your help.
Rufus
Rufus Gifford
National Finance Director
Obama for America
The key line there is this:
From the beginning, we’ve refused to take money from D.C. lobbyists and corporate special interests.
They’re either using a very Bill Clinton-esque dictionary to define “from the beginning” and “corporate special interests” or they’re lying. Because, back in “the beginning”, this is what the top Obama donors list looked like.
Here on the reality side of things, Microsoft, Google, Time Warner and at least half of that list seem so very, very corporate.
This has always been part of the Obama administration’s political genius. It pretends to be all about the little guy while being so in bed with corporate money that it gets turndown service every night. For several weeks now, the president has been walking a tightrope between all-out class warfare speeches that take place immediately prior to fundraising dinners with the very rich people he was just so vehemently excoriating.
The illusion is, of course, maintained with the help of a press corps that rarely asks questions that reveal anything other than how the president is feeling that day. With support cracking in places President Obama probably thought he could count on, there may be a real chance that this “double life” will finally be acknowledged by the progressive base that so loathes all things corporate.