In the pocket of “Big Oil”
By JR Hoeft | Friday, August 8th, 2008 | Politics
It turns out that a couple of candidates running for federal office this year have significant financial interests with the major oil companies.
Surprise: it’s Democrats Barack Obama and Glenn Nye.
According to the Miami Herald, “Barack Obama has an ad accusing John McCain of being “in the pocket” of Big Oil, and the Democratic party is busy mocking the “Exxon-McCain 08” ticket.” But employees of household names Exxon, Chevron and BP have given more money to Obama than McCain, according to the Center of Responsive Politics.”
And, on Glenn Nye’s latest financial disclosure statement, he has invested at least $2000 in oil companies.
In a free market economy, and as a conservative, I applaud the donations and investments being received and made by Obama and Nye. They are free to receive and invest how they please.
But does their stump rhetoric match their portfolio? It hardly makes any sense for them to be attacking Republicans on this issue when they have as significant or greater contributions or investments.
(h/t: RWL)
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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13 Responses to "In the pocket of “Big Oil”"
You may want to re-check your sources: your post is inaccurate.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/08/goldfarb-big-oil-lie/
Looks like someone is spinning the Center for Responsive Politics article, which reports: “McCain leads the money race with nearly every other top giver in the oil and gas industry, though — Koch Industries, Valero, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, the list goes on. (You can see detail on all these companies in the spreadsheet linked below.) McCain also has a big edge with Hess Corp. — $91,000 to Obama’s $8,000 — which has gotten some attention. And, overall, McCain’s campaign has gotten THREE TIMES more money from the industry than Obama’s has — $1.3 million compared to about $394,000.”
Here’s the CRP link: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/oil-industry-leans-toward-mcca.html
Moreover, if $2,000 qualifies as a “significant financial interest” in an oil company, I must be some kind of oil barron. I’m going to call Exxon and ask for a seat on the board…
Seriously, this is pretty weak.
Uh…my source is the Miami Herald…take it up with them.
Also, you both are missing the point.
Democrats LOVE to imply somehow that Republicans are beholden to special interests…the reality is that Democrats also invest and receive contributions from those same interests.
If Obama is so strict about lobbyist ties that he kicks war hero Sen. Max Cleland out of a fundraiser, you’d think he’d be equally strict about taking money from Big Oil.
Your spin is worthy of Karl Rove – and the swiftboaters for “truth”.
Is that it, Ragnar? That’s the best you can respond with? When are you going to start being original and quit responding with talking points that have been around since 2004?
I would be curious to see the info broken down by number and size of the contributions. Conventional wisdom is that the execs contribute more to McCain and the middle-to-lower income contribute more to Obama. Since the executives usually benefit more directly from the companies success, it makes sense that their contributions would generally be more inline with the “corporate agenda” than contributions from employees (barring corporate coercion). Seeing how this played out in those “big oil” contributions may paint a more interesting picture.
As far as special interests, both parties receive significant money from special interests. Where it becomes interesting is putting together the time lines of donations recvd and actions taken.
So some oil money, particularly from the largest firms that are the ones making record profits, is OK, but the rest of it is evil? That’s an awfully strong spin you’re trying to make here, folks.
Obama is just as tied to “Big Oil” as McCain may be, he has no ground to speak on when he lashes out other than that he’s trying to get the public and the media to buy into the audacity of his hype.
Corporation of any kind should be barred from contributing to campaigns in any way. Yes, unions count as corporations.
Jack,
I think there should be a point of clarification…the donors are individuals, not the corporation.
McCain has received more than THREE times the amount from Big Oil than Obama. End of Story.
Ian – The biggest of Big Oil have given to Obama. Maybe it wasn’t enough so he came around on off shore drilling…
I’m wondering why anybody is surprised that a corporation would donate more money to the campaign that says they’ll open up drilling opportunities for them. Is that shocking or confusing?
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