Obama Upset By Influence Of Foreign Contributions--But Not By Those That Went Into His Campaign

The New York Times covers an issue that apparently is of deep concern to Obama:

Ever since he raised the issue in his State of the Union speech nearly nine months ago — prompting head-shaking by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the Supreme Court — President Obama has been warning about the danger of foreign money creeping into elections as a result of the court’s landmark campaign finance ruling.

At issue is the alleged foreign influence exerted on the US Chamber of Commerce:

“Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,” Mr. Obama said. “So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections.”

The problem is that, as the New York Times itself points out--both liberal and conservative lawyers agree that collecting overseas dues is neither improper nor unusual.

On the other hand, further in the article, other improprieties come up:

The specter of foreign money entering American campaigns has been a potent political issue over the years. President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign gave rise to evidence of illegal contributions from overseas.

Mr. Obama himself faced accusations by conservative opponents in his 2008 campaign that his large online fund-raising efforts may have generated contributions from foreign nationals barred from contributing. No allegations were substantiated.

Instapundit expands on the issue of improprieties in the Obama campaign--an issue that one who have thought Obama would have wanted to avoid bringing up. Among the issues of foreign funds due to lack of record keeping: Obama's campaign accepted donations from Gaza:

Then there’s the question of whether foreign nationals are contributing to the Obama campaign. There is more than enough evidence to warrant a full-scale investigation by the Federal Election Commission, including the $32,332.19 that appears to have come from two brothers living in a Hamas-controlled Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah, GA (that’s Gaza, not Georgia). The brothers’ cash is part of a flood of illegal foreign contributions accepted by the Obama campaign.

But as I wrote a few months ago, Obama is unlikely to be audited about the numerous cases of suspicious contributions because he did not participate in the public financing program.

Technorati Tag: Obama.