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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (2413)	7/17/2007 7:42:08 PM
From: MJ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

ChinuSFO Technically, in election reports a candidate reports monetary contributions as cash contributions and they are limited per individual--------believe it is $2300.00 per person now. Bumper stickers and pins are expenses of the campaign if purchased by the campaign. They represent income when sold.If not sold, they are an expense not recovered. Each bumper sticker sold does not necessarily reflect one voter. Consider that one voter may actually buy 1 bumper sticker or buy more bumper stickers such as 4 or 5 of a different design. Making phone calls for a candidate is a time-honored way to support a candidate; however, these do not get reported as contributions. If Obama wants to talk about grassroots volunteers, then he needs to estimate his volunteers from state to state and report what his campaign estimates. How many phonebank volunteers does he have e.g.----- There is such a contribution as "in-kind" contributions. What the federal election laws are currently on accepting and reporting in-kind cotnribtutions I don't know. Perhaps someone else here knows the regs. regarding contributions that get reported as in-kind--------i.e. contributing office space for a candidate's campaign headquarters locally and up through the national level. Quantifying a grassroots movement is nye impossible-----this appears to be what Obama is attempting. The candidates today have new technology that changes to some extent how they reach voteres. Add the internet to the traditional tried and true and one may have the winning formula. Obama is talking about change and attempting to use the reporting of these campaign figures as an example of change. The question here is not about how to count contributions but whether or not he can be perceived as having the stature of a Reagan or JF Kennedy to be elected and implement changes he will advocate. mj