Former Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) is not happy with President Obama’s high dollar fundraisers with the top one percent, suggesting that he is tainting his image as a “man of the people.”
“When he is associating with the one percent and asking for contributions from the one percent it makes the other 99 percent think they are not part of the process,” Feingold said on the Tavis Smiley show on Tuesday. “All of the people were excited about Obama in 2008, it is kind of depressing. it’s like, ‘Why do I bother? It is not about me anymore.'”
Feingold spoke with Tavis Smiley at length about campaign finance, criticizing the President for imitating Republicans by seeking Super PAC donations and raising money from wealthy donors.
“The reason he should walk away from this, apart from the moral aspect and that it is a terrible thing to do, is that it is also important to win the election, to not touch this money.” Feingold stated.
Feingold said that he was not happy when the Obama campaign called him in advance to warned him about the president’s decision to change his mind and raise money for Super PACs.
“I think this keeps him up at night, he’s a good man, he’s an honest guy, he’s been convinced wrongly by a bunch of political aides that he needs to do this, I think that’s wrong.” said Feingold, who challenged Obama to change his mind again, asserting that the president did not need the money to win re-election.
“He’s going to win because he is Barack Obama, not because of money,” said Feingold.
Feingold added, however, that it was important to re-elect President Obama so that he would appoint judges to the Supreme Court who would overturn the Citizens United decision, which helped solidify the role of Super PACs in American elections.
Feingold was the co-sponsor of important campaign finance reform legislation together with Senator John McCain.
