Obama Exploiting Hopeful Poor For Change

Barack Hussein Obama has the charm, the looks, the delegate lead. But things aren’t all blow and weed for the presidential front-runner: His name sorta makes him sound like he could be a terrorist (as first reported in Metro in 2006), he has a friend who’s on trial in Chicago for throwing puppies and both Satan and Osama bin Laden have offered their support.

Still, things are pretty good: In February Obama raised $55 million, roughly the equivalent of eleven Ron Paul Liberty Dollar money bombs. So with a cool 55 mil in the bank just from last month, why is Obama charging the hopeful poor for campaign signs? Clark DeLeon writes on his blog:

I stood next to a young woman offering herself as a volunteer at the reception desk at Obama’s Philadelphia headquarters on the fourth floor of former bank building a 15th and Sansom Sts. in Center City. She asked for a Barack Obama poster to put in her front yard in Powelton Village. She was told that such a sign would cost her five dollars. And she paid.

“I felt guilty,” she said later, noting that when she worked as a volunteer for Chaka Fattah during his run for mayor of Philadelphia no one ever charged her for campaign posters. She didn’t have to add that she also felt stupid and vaguely insulted. Five dollars for a campaign poster? This is change? Earlier that same week a middle aged city employee and District Council 47 union activist used her lunch hour to stop by Obama’s newly opened Sansom Street headquarters (right above PW!—dmac) to ask for an Obama for President sign to put in her South Philly rowhouse window. She was treated like a bag lady trying to get over on Ebay. “You people come in here expecting free material,” said a shockingly unpleasant man.

Barack Obama clearly is coming up with a backup plan here: If he doesn’t win the presidency, at least he’ll have all the money in the country. Clearly, this is a good plan.

What’s up wid dat? [The Daily DeLeon]