Obama Trying Not to Take From Lobbyists, McCain Takes from the Worst of Them

Submitted by Howard Beale on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 3:52pm.

A central part of Barack Obama's effort to win the Presidency with his message of change and rejection of "the old politics" has been his campaign's concerted attempt at diminishing the influence of lobbyist money on the process.

By contrast, John McCain's campaign is not only run largely by lobbyists, but is funded by them as well.

And for us Missourians, there is one particularly illustrative and locally relevant example.  According to McCain's official website, one of the individuals raising more than $50,000 for the McCain presidential campaign is Jefferson City's own James Harris.  Harris is a lobbyist registered in Missouri on behalf of no fewer than nine clients.­­

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Of course, the most telling part isn't simply that Harris is a lobbyist embraced by McCain, but rather that his ethical standards --while insufficient to allow him to continue working in the Matt Blunt administration-- are apparently good enough for the Republican who wants to be President of the United States.  Yikes.

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