Clinton Camp: Obama Falsely Claims He Doesn't Take Oil Money

A new memo out from the Clinton campaign:

False Advertising: New Obama Ad Falsely Claims He Does Not Accept Money From Oil Companies

Phil Singer: "It's unfortunate that Senator Obama is using false advertising to explain why he can be trusted to do something about energy prices. Senator Obama says he doesn't take campaign contributions from oil companies but the reality is that Exxon, Shell, and others are among his donors. I wonder if they'll fix the ad."

A new ad by Sen. Obama running in Pennsylvania falsely claims that Sen. Obama does not accept money from the oil industry. In the ad, Sen. Obama says "I'm Barack Obama and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists and I won't let them block change anymore."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Obama has received over $160,000 from the oil and gas companies. Two major bundlers for his campaign -- George Kaiser and Robert Cavnar - are oil company CEOs. Sen. Obama has accepted money from Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron and just about every other major oil company. Just last month, Sen. Obama accepted another $8,400 from ExxonMobil, $12,370 from Chevron and $6,500 from British Petroleum.

In 2005, Sen. Obama voted for the Dick Cheney energy bill, which was written in secret with the oil industry. Hillary Clinton opposed Cheney's energy bill, has a plan to eliminate oil industry tax breaks, and would require oil companies to contribute to a $50 billion strategic energy fund to jumpstart research and investment in clean energy technologies.

Here's the ad:

Comments

[meese]

What ever happened to campaigning with the truth, Sen. Clinton?

I know Hillary Clinton knows as well as I do how donations to campaigns work. Money that individuals give is given by them, but they're required by law to say who they work for. That doesn't mean the company gave the candidate money.

Just an example: my dad works for a big corporation, and has worked there for most of his life. But they're about to downsize, and he's going to lose his job. Worse, he's going to lose his job before his pension benefits kick in, so he might not get those, even though he's worked there for decades. My dad donated to Barack Obama, but when he did so, he had to say who he works for. Now, do you think that my dad has the same interests as the company that's about to downsize its operation and screw him out of his pension?

I don't think so. But if you follow Hillary Clinton's logic, then my dad's contribution is the same as the company itself donating money.

[SaltySaltillo]

Ok, so since I am required by law to disclose who I work for when I give $25 donations, Obama has now "taken money" from my employer's industry?

Wow, good thing I don't work for the company that takes lunch money from little children and then puts them to work in a glue factory for 12 hours a day or else Clinton and Obama both would have some explaining to do.

[aquarius2001]

Hillary keeps saying "let's talk about the issues", but yet she keeps coiming up with these false negative attacks!!! Then she gets mad when Obama strikes back and blasts her for lying!!

[Selbourne]

CAMPAIGN DONORS
Obama has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from one million citizens. So I do not think a few thousand dollars from any commercial entity buys any access or obligation. Let's get real here.
Obama does not have wealthy donors trying to intimdate Nancy Pelosi. None of us individually has any influence over the process. But collectively we have funded a candidate whom we believe will put our interests first. He must, since in a re-election campaign he will want to come back to us for support. Similarly the Clintons will need to go back to their wealthy donors for financial support. Naturally they will need to pay attention to their sponsor's interests.

[abot]

From opensecrets.org

HRC has taken MORE money from Oil Companies than BO:

Clinton, Hillary $289,950 Obama, Barack $163,840

[sadcitizen]

She does`ntlie about it.

[wayoutleft]

who gave what to whom: a classic dem p*****g match while mr magoo over on the right rolls out big airtime as the guiding hand and spiritual avatar of the american republic. bombing all comers and making fun of the poor like the brutal splenetic codger he is.

[indieskip]

Here is the response from the Obama Campaign

"Mr. Singer shouldn’t hold his breath. Bill Burton, press secretary for the Obama campaign, reaffirmed the ad’s message, saying “Senator Obama is the only candidate in the race who doesn’t accept campaign contributions from special interests PACs and Washington lobbyists, and that includes oil companies and oil lobbyists.­”

“The energy bill that Senator Clinton has already been criticized for misrepresenting — one that Clinton supporters Representatives Murtha and Kanjorski also backed — actually raised taxes on oil companies and made the largest investment in renewable energy in our nation’s history,” said Mr. Burton in a statement. “Instead of continuing with the negative and misleading tactics that voters everywhere are rejecting, Senator Clinton should get behind the Obama plan to ease the burden of rising gas prices on working families.”

[iPolitics]

“The energy bill that Senator Clinton has already been criticized for misrepresenting — one that Clinton supporters Representatives Murtha and Kanjorski also backed — actually raised taxes on oil companies and made the largest investment in renewable energy in our nation’s history,” said Mr. Burton in a statement. “Instead of continuing with the negative and misleading tactics that voters everywhere are rejecting, Senator Clinton should get behind the Obama plan to ease the burden of rising gas prices on working families.”

[LaVieEnRose]

Uh, oh...here it comes OIL MONEY-GATE.

Remember "Shame on you..." and NAFTA-Gate right before Ohio, DON'T FALL FOR IT Pennsylvania!

[kempis]

One of the Obamamyths is that his campaign is solely funded by the piggy banks of ordinary Americans--that he's too pure of heart to associate with lobbyists and PACs. This has been a carefully constructed pose for his campaign. But before the campaign started, he was happy to build a lucrative PAC of his own thanks to a network of DC lobbyists. It takes money to *begin* to run for president. And Obama's been positioning himself for this run since the moment he landed in DC--all of three and a half years ago:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/11/0081275

[SouthCentralDel]

Huffpo, when are you going to update this article and tell the whole story rather than being a mouthpiece or shill on this story?

[TN]

Bill say's he want to argue. Hillary that night says to a crowd something to the effect that her supporters are ready for this. I ask myself, what is this, "this" she is talking about. I guess I just found out. NAFTA GATE 2 = OIL GATE.

[indie17]

From Clinton's memo above, this is an outright lie. Clinton blatantly says that Obama has received money 'from the oil companies'.

Go to opensecrets.com, which is the 'Center for Responsive Politics' website. They clearly list the donations for Obama as being from INDIVIDUAL DONORS -- not PACS, not lobbyists, and not oil companies. THE ORGANIZATIONS THEMSELVES DID NOT DONATE.

"This chart lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates­."

[netgecko99]

Yeah, clearly Exxon's 100,000+ employees should all be barred from donating to Obama's campaign. We all know that employees of a company can never have any sort of independent thought, after all, and candidates must be obligated to support their employer if they donate, right?

[KSH]

That is such a lie.

I work for a telecommunications company. I suppose my donations are counted in that market.

The Clinton camp is really making a bad situation worse.

[ginnypoo]

Obama supporters always have so much trouble just accepting that Obama IS a politician and......h­e lies more than any candidate I can remember..­he must have set a new record by now. "I wasn't in church, I was in church, Rezko gave me 22K, oh I mean 50K, oh, wait it's 85K, now it's up to 250K".....­......liar­, liar liar.

[conscioushope]

They are going to get tendonitis from stone-throwing. The game is over

[Mattie]

go to senate.gov he voted for Cheney's energy bill. Why are you all so delusional!

[S1m0n]

"Obama has accepted money from Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron and just about every other major oil company."

It's illegal for Obama to take 'oil company money', and if Clinton thinks she has evidence of that, she should be talking to the elections commission or holding a press conference, not her ad copywriter.

But she isn't, so I'm confident we can file yet another whopper in the Tuzla file.