Obama 2012 campaign: President Obama himself makes an unexpected announcement about the upcoming “Dinner with Barack” contest.
To participate in the contest you need to donate at least $5 to the campaign and your name will be raffled off to enjoy a dinner with the President, airfare and accommodations included. In a new web video, Obama announced Vice President Joe Biden will also be attending the dinner.
There is one problem, however. This campaign ad was most likely recorded in the White House, which would violate FEC campaign finance laws.
Apparently it is OK to do this from the residence portion of the White House, although I think it is unseemly. And it's been done before by several presidents...
A White House official told ABC News that filming the video in the White House residence “is entirely appropriate. The legal restriction is only that we cannot solicit funds in certain offices in the White House which we’re not doing.” The DNC brought the film crew and paid for it.
The good government officials weren’t particularly critical of the president filming the video in the White House residence.
“The raffle itself is aimed at small donors, which is the kind of money Common Cause thinks should be encouraged,” Boyle said, “and in fact, you can enter the raffle without even donating. As for whether he filmed it in the residence portion, versus somewhere else, we don’t see how the public interest is being harmed if he filmed this in his residence.”
Sloan said that the White House residence can be used as anyone would use his or her home. “Can you imagine if he had traveled on a big motorcade to go somewhere else to film it?” she asked.
The White House provided a list of Youtube clips of Republican presidents using the White House in campaign ads, including THIS ONE from President George W. Bush and THIS ONE from President Ronald Reagan.
We can talk about his failure to follow the law and propose legislation to correct the problem of Medicare drawing more than 45% of its budget from the general fund within 15 days of submitting his budget request if you'd like.
