Via Townhall:
This story from The Hill, based on a new report from a transparency-minded organization, falls more into the “friendly reminder” category than the “bombshell revelation” column. You may recall that following President Obama’s re-election in 2012, his campaign apparatus was transformed into a supposedly “independent,” non-partisan organization devoted to advancing his second term agenda. The notion that Obama for America could rebrand itself as ‘Organizing for Action’ and receive 501(c)4 tax-free status as a nonprofit — especially in light of the IRS targeting scandal — should be preposterous on its face, yet it’s reality. This “outside” group operates BarackObama.com and the @BarackObama twitter handle. It also declared its explicit intention to literally sell access to the White House and Obama himself. Flashback to 2013:
Next month, Organizing for Action will hold a “founders summit” at a hotel near the White House, where donors paying $50,000 each will mingle with Mr. Obama’s former campaign manager, Jim Messina, and Mr. Carson, who previously led the White House Office of Public Engagement. Giving or raising $500,000 or more puts donors on a national advisory board for Mr. Obama’s group and the privilege of attending quarterly meetings with the president, along with other meetings at the White House. Moreover, the new cash demands on Mr. Obama’s top donors and bundlers come as many of them are angling for appointments to administration jobs or ambassadorships.
The scheme flies in the face of the high-minded rhetoric with which Obama launched his first presidential campaign in 2017, and makes a complete joke out of his alleged opposition to the influence of money in politics — a cynical canard that has been exposed over and over again. Good Government Barack has always been a fraud. He’s just another self-interested, say-anything pol for whom the ends of power accrual justify the means, including shunting aside even oft-stated “principles.” Given that OFA was more or less advertising quarterly meetings with the President of the United States at the White House for the low, low price of just $500,000 per year, how is any of this even remotely shocking?