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Obama hires lobbyist for 2012 re-election

Ockham

Ockham

Noblesse oblige
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Why is it that President Obama is hiring a long time lobbyist for his 2012 election campaign?

TheHill said:
By Kevin Bogardus - 10/24/11 12:38 PM ET
Obama campaign brings on ex-lobbyist as senior adviser - TheHill.com


President Obama’s reelection campaign has hired a former lobbyist to serve as a senior adviser to the 2012 team.

The Obama campaign announced Monday the hiring of Broderick Johnson, a veteran of the Clinton White House and Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) 2004 presidential campaign.

Obama positioned himself as an enemy of K Street and special interests during his first presidential campaign. He repeatedly vowed that lobbyists would not run his White House and refused to accept campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.

Johnson is a former partner at the law firm Bryan Cave and was registered to lobby up until April 2011 for several major companies and trade groups, including the Financial Services Forum, Comcast Corporation, and Microsoft, according to lobbying disclosure records.

Johnson left Bryan Cave in April this year, deregistered as a lobbyist and co-founded the Collins Johnson Group, a strategic communications firm, with Art Collins, a former adviser to the Obama 2008 and Kerry 2004 presidential campaigns.

Johnson was also a lobbyist for AT&T before he joined Bryan Cave, according to lobbying disclosure records.
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No lobbyists was the corner stone of Obama's election - not to be beholded to special interest, which failed miserably. In fact, Mr. Obama at the time identified lobbyists would not work on regulations or contracts for two years. Johnson has lobbied for Comcast, Microsoft and others.

Does breaking the promise 2x make it worse? I think so - a little worse.

Let me sum it up simply:

Obama_Promises.jpg





How do we believe him again, when such an important issues was thrown aside not once, but now twice? Isn't this what the OWS protesters are against? What's their reaction? Is this no big deal?
 
Let's look at one of your links, the one with the promise Obama made:

Obama's ethics proposals specifically spelled out that former lobbyists would not be allowed to "work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years."
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So in no way, shape or form has he violated that. He hired some one to work on his campaign, which is somewhat(totally) different.
 
Thanks, Redress.

I was going to point out the same thing.

The former lobbyist IS NOT part of the Executive Branch NOR is he working part of the President's Cabinet (Administration). And since Mr. Johnson is no longer a registered lobbyist and is only working as a senior advisor to the President's 2012 re-election campaign, I see nothing wrong with this. The only black mark would be that Mr. Johnson made a campaign contribution to the President's 2012 campaign prior to no longer being a lobbyist. Otherwise, I'd say everything's above board here.
 
Ockham said:
So this is wrong then?

PolitiFact | The Obameter: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials
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You'll notice the link you provided doesn't even mention the name "Broderick Johnson". Just trying to change the subject since you were shown to be hilariously wrong on what you posted.

What does this thread show?

1. Politifact is a very well run site that is non partisan and only interested in the truth.

2. Obama did not keep his promise on the lobbyist thing, though I think it's hard to deny he's doing a better job than they did under Bush.

3. Ockham will spout anything he hears without double checking it if it bashes the president. When caught being wrong he opts to double down and change subjects rather than just admit a mistake or that he was wrong.
 
Ockham said:
Is the link wrong?
Click to expand...
The link was correct, and the link also made no assertion about your initial post, which was wrong. Even in a thread where you have a good point you manage to get it mostly wrong, of course, lol.
 
roughdraft274 said:
You'll notice the link you provided doesn't even mention the name "Broderick Johnson". Just trying to change the subject since you were shown to be hilariously wrong on what you posted.

What does this thread show?

1. Politifact is a very well run site that is non partisan and only interested in the truth.

2. Obama did not keep his promise on the lobbyist thing, though I think it's hard to deny he's doing a better job than they did under Bush.

3. Ockham will spout anything he hears without double checking it if it bashes the president. When caught being wrong he opts to double down and change subjects rather than just admit a mistake or that he was wrong.
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That's a very nice "attack the poster", but you've provided no argument or sound opinions that rebut what I've posted. Bush is a red herring and not part of this duscussion in any shape or form (you're attempt at distraction), and the fact remains that Johnson was a registered lobbyist last in April 2011, who is now hired by the Obama re-election campaign. :shrug:
 
roughdraft274 said:
The link was correct, and the link also made no assertion about your initial post, which was wrong. Even in a thread where you have a good point you manage to get it mostly wrong, of course, lol.
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So Johnson was not a registered lobbyist last in April 2011? Johnson was not hired by the Obama re-election campaign?
 
Ockham said:
That's a very nice "attack the poster", but you've provided no argument or sound opinions that rebut what I've posted. Bush is a red herring and not part of this duscussion in any shape or form (you're attempt at distraction), and the fact remains that Johnson was a registered lobbyist last in April 2011, who is now hired by the Obama re-election campaign. :shrug:
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Yes, he was hired by the re-election campaign which has nothing to do with his former job and is not a government position. Since they didn't hire him to the government, you have no point, and your rebuttal that includes the link to politifact is completely off topic since it doesn't even mention the guys name.

I summed this up nicely already. You're wrong about Obama breaking his promise in this case. He isn't hiring the guy for a government position, which is what the promise was about. The article by politifact ( a supposedly left wing lame stream media site) got it right, in other instances he has hired lobbyists that broke his campaign promise, though he did enact policies regarding them recusing themselves with any deals d3ealing with their former companies or for any reason involving self-interest.

Like I said, the thread is wrong, and the only time you got anything right is when you linked to a "left wing" site that talked about completely separate occurrences.
 
Ockham said:
So Johnson was not a registered lobbyist last in April 2011? Johnson was not hired by the Obama re-election campaign?
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The re-election campaign isn't a government position. You can play dumb all you want, you understand the argument here and you know that you were wrong. It's ok, happens to the best of us.
 
I'm sure the OWS will welcome this development that a former Bank of America lobbyist is on the Obama '12 team <snickers>


perception, in politics, is everything, so they say.
 
Ockham said:
jesus-facepalm.jpg



No one is claiming it's a government position.
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Of course your not, your only upset that he broke his promise of not hiring lobbyists for government positions by hiring a guy for a non-governmental position... wait what?

Damn, I'd hate Obama's guts too if I believed all the trash I heard on right wing sites without doing any fact checking like you do... lol.
 
roughdraft274 said:
Yes, he was hired by the re-election campaign which has nothing to do with his former job and is not a government position.
Click to expand...
Johnson was a registered lobbyist last in April 2011.

roughdraft274 said:
Since they didn't hire him to the government, you have no point, and your rebuttal that includes the link to politifact is completely off topic since it doesn't even mention the guys name.
Click to expand...
The point is clearly identified that Obama made a corner stone of his 2008 campaign - "No lobbyists". Then broke his own rules after becoming President, and is now breaking them again by hiring a former lobbyist for his re-election. Do you dispute these facts?
 
roughdraft274 said:
Of course your not, your only upset that he broke his promise of not hiring lobbyists for government positions by hiring a guy for a non-governmental position... wait what?
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Another nice accusation, but I'm not upset at all. I'm asking for people's input as to how they can believe Obama again, when he broke his promise for no lobbying now 2x. You've done nothing but deny. Do you have any information disputing the facts as they are provided? If so please provide your rebuttal.

roughdraft said:
Damn, I'd hate Obama's guts too if I believed all the trash I heard on right wing sites without doing any fact checking like you do... lol.
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The facts as I've provided them are so far undisputed.
 
Wait, Obama's hiring politicos for his campaign. God, the way he's acting you'd think he wanted to get re-elected or something...

Look, he promised not to hire loobyists to government jobs. This doesn't break that promise because the campaign is not part of the government. At least not technically.
 
Ockham said:
So this is wrong then?

PolitiFact | The Obameter: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials
Click to expand...

No one is claiming it is. However, what you are tying it to, the hiring of this guy for his campaign, has exactly jack **** to do with his campaign promise. This is not rocket surgery. There is nothing at all complicated in this. This hiring does not violate his campaign promise. No one is making claims beyond that. No one is saying he has a good record on the promise(he does not). That does not change the fact that you got your facts all ****ed up.
 
Obama's campaign promise of not hiring lobbyists for administration positions was broken long ago... multiple times.

just sayin'
 
Thrilla said:
Obama's campaign promise of not hiring lobbyists for administration positions was broken long ago... multiple times.

just sayin'
Click to expand...

But not in this case. What we have is some one made an article, and either expected that people would be too stupid to follow the link he provided, too stupid to understand what was at the link, or he himself was too stupid to understand. Ockham fell for it hook line and sinker.

Basic rule of the internets: always assume some one is lying unless they supply proof, and until you have checked that proof.
 
Redress said:
But not in this case. What we have is some one made an article, and either expected that people would be too stupid to follow the link he provided, too stupid to understand what was at the link, or he himself was too stupid to understand. Ockham fell for it hook line and sinker.

Basic rule of the internets: always assume some one is lying unless they supply proof, and until you have checked that proof.
Click to expand...

yeah, this doesn't technically violate his promise, agreed....
.... but it still looks bad for him to be hiring lobbyists... it kinda goes against the spirit of his alleged anti-lobbyist position.
 
Thrilla said:
yeah, this doesn't technically violate his promise, agreed....
.... but it still looks bad for him to be hiring lobbyists... it kinda goes against the spirit of his alleged anti-lobbyist position.
Click to expand...

It only looks bad to people looking for things to cry about. There is no substance whatsoever to this whine. If this is the best the right has, Obama should win next year easily.
 
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