McCain Possibly Breaks Campaign Finance Law, Faces Possible Prison Time

[Dinner]

Hey, you're the one who has already been a proven liar in this thread. Claiming the thread title was misleading when it was both clear and factually correct.

To have broken the limit all McCain would have had to do was spend $1 million per week for the last five weeks. As you yourself pointed out he's averaging 250% of that.

Face reality. The man is over the limit.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Hey, you're the one who has already been a proven liar in this thread. Claiming the thread title was misleading when it was both clear and factually correct.

You don't actually read what you type, do you?

[Ming]

ENOUGH WITH THE PERSONAL CRAP... Discuss the topic and NOT the posters... If you can't do that then don't post... or find some other site that will put up with that kind of crap.

[PLATO]

"Personal Crap" subforum??

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Face reality. The man is over the limit.

Then find the article that states this....

[Ramo]

He spent $49m over what, three to four months? That's like $2.5m/week at most, and presumably a much larger portion was spent during Super Tuesday. Why would he suddenly spend $5m on one (very incredibly expensive) ad now that he's up against the cap?

The last filing doesn't include the five days before Super Tuesday - fairly important days in his campaign. Or the dozen or so contests afterwards. There tends to be a lot more spending during actual elections...

We won't know exactly what happened until 3/20 (finance reports for a month are due 20 days after it ends), but it's not very plausible that he hasn't spent past the limit.

And running a campaign is about more than television ads...

[Wiglaf]

http://www.campaignfreedom.org/blog/id.514/blog_detail.asp

This is a good explanation of all the crap that is being talked about in this thread. Finance laws can easily ensnare people in BS ethics violations.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Wiglaf

http://www.campaignfreedom.org/blog/id.514/blog_detail.asp

This is a good explanation of all the crap that is being talked about in this thread. Finance laws can easily ensnare people in BS ethics violations.

Yes, agreeing to do one thing and then doing another .... ooh, that's really a snare for the unwary.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yep. This title is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

Fixed.

[Kuciwalker]

/me blinks, trying to see what was changed

[OneFootInTheGrave]

fraudsters subforum

[Dinner]

Really good article on this topic, by Britain's The Economist Magazine.

McCain's integrity problem

Posted by:
Economist.com | NEW YORK

WE referenced it earlier in the week, but let's be a little more clear about how John McCain tried to circumvent campaign-finance rules that he helped create. Last year, when Mr McCain's campaign appeared moribund, the senator applied to join the presidential public financing system. Under this programme Mr McCain agreed to certain spending limits and, in turn, received access to federal matching money. (Sidenote: It's a terrible system that is basically designed to keep losers in the race.)

But in January, after some early success in the primaries, the public financing system wasn't looking like such a good deal anymore. So Mr McCain moved to opt out. Around the same time his campaign went to the bank looking for a loan. Bank officials, lacking confidence in the candidate's future fundraising success, worried that they would never see their money again. So what did Mr McCain do? Mark Schmitt looked at the loan documents and says

[R]ather than pledge his existing certification for matching funds as collateral for the loan, which would bind him to the system and thus the spending limits, McCain carefully pledged to seek to re-enter the system later, and to use a non-existent future certification as collateral. And while the system is "voluntary," McCain essentially traded away for cash his right to choose whether to participate in the system, and even his right to drop out of the presidential race, allowing the bank to force McCain "to remain an active candidate" in order to reapply for and qualify for funds. He was betting the spread (10 points) on his own primary performance! I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this is a promise to perpetuate a fraud on the American taxpayers: if he no longer intended to seek the presidency, he made a legally-binding promise to pretend to remain in the race just long enough to collect public money to repay the loan.

Whether or not this is legal, the loan document is a mockery of the senator's signature issue. It speaks to the man's integrity, or lack thereof. Coupled with this week's revelations about his cozy ties to lobbyists (and his odd false denial), Mr McCain's reputation as a straight-talking reformer should have taken a very big hit. Instead he can thank the New York Times for introducing Vicki Iseman to the world.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/02/mccains_week_in_review.cfm

[Berzerker]

did he get any money for helping that dude buy a Pittsburgh TV station?

[CrONoS]

So what is happening with the possible breaking of finance law?

And by the way;

“One of our greatest assets we have in Afghanistan today, frankly, are our Canadian friends. It's very controversial in Canada, their commitment and the suffering and the losses they have faced. And we need, we need our Canadian friends and we need their continued support in Afghanistan. So what do we do? The two Democratic candidates for president say they're going to unilaterally abrogate NAFTA … Every time in history we have practised protectionism, we have paid a very heavy price for it. How do you think the Canadian people are going to react to that? I think Canada would view that as a betrayal of the long years of negotiations that we agreed to.”

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080229/mccain_nafta_080229?s_name=&no_ads=

[Dinner]

I believe we still have a couple of weeks before McCain legally has to divulge how much he has spent. It's very clear that he has exceeded the limit but no one will be able to say until he officially files the report with the Federal Election Commission.