“Hungry for Change”: Obama gets baked in Atlanta
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
What is it with liberals and bake sales, anyway? They’re fascinated by them. I’m thinking of the bumper sticker plastered all over Volvos back in the day that bemoaned, “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” A more recent example came from the 2006 campaign, “Bake Sales for Body Armor,” which “is dedicated to saving the lives of our soldiers by raising funds to buy body armor, medical supplies, and other items that promote their health and welfare.”
Laugh all you want. There’s gold in them cookies, as the presidential campaign for Barack Obama proved over the weekend with its “Hungry for Change” campaign that staged more than 700 bake sales all over the country — including several in Atlanta. The timing of the Saturday sales could not have come at a more ironic moment as they came on the heels of the presumptive Democratic nominee’s pledge-breaking announcement that he would opt out of accepting public financing for his campaign. Under those restrictions, Obama could have received no more than $85 million — peanuts these days, considering that Obama already has raised a couple hundred million, and some estimates see him reaching half a billion by the fall elections.
The wisdom and ethics of his decision depends on your perspective, I suppose. Critics say his decision shows him as a two-timing hypocrite in that he had earlier pledged to accept public financing along with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and that he has campaigned as a reformer. Supporters say that, considering his unprecedented success at raising money at the grass-roots level — mostly on the Internet — Obama has redefined the entire concept of the term “public financing.”
Which brings us back to the bake sales, which could be found all over the Atlanta area on Saturday. (There was no confirmation about whether all the goodies were baked by left hands only.) I stopped by two of them in vastly contrasting neighborhoods: Little Five Points and Southwest Atlanta. The first one was hosted by Lexa King, an L5P resident of nearly a quarter century and Realtor. Like others, King learned of the bake sales through an email from MoveOn.org. (more…)
So how did you spend your Creative Loafing Beer Fest? Did you pass by me on your way from the MARTA station, trying to figure out what the hell was up with the closed sidewalk for the last two blocks and why you had to cross the street twice just to get in? If I had a dollar for every person who gave me a screwy look as I played “Sidewalk Monitor,” I could have afforded a ticket to get in. The funny thing was, once I finished my shift and went inside Woodruff, I ran into several Fest-goers who seemed like it was totally worth the re-routing.
Monster Bash
Will 