Obama’s Oil Spill

Newsweek has picked up on the story of Obama taking oil money even though he claims he doesn’t. (As you can see from Oil Change’s cool tool – he does take oil money). According to Newsweek: “ In a new ad, Obama says “I don’t take money from oil companies … that’s a little too slick.”

“Technically, that’s true, since a law that has been on the books for more than a century prohibits corporations from giving money directly to any federal candidate. But that doesn’t distinguish Obama from his rivals in the race.”

“We find the statement misleading: Obama has accepted more than $213,000 from individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses.”

“Two of Obama’s bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful.”

“We’re not making any judgments about whether Obama is influenced by campaign contributions. In fact, we’d note that he singles out ExxonMobil in this ad, even though he’s received more than $30,850 from individuals who work for the company. But we do think that in theory, contributions that come in volume from oil industry executives, or are bundled by them, can be every bit as influential as PAC contributions, if not more so.”