Yes, He Can (and why doesn't he)

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-09-2008
Yes, He Can (and why doesn't he)
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Fri, 10-31-2008 - 12:41pm


http://www.slate.com/id/2203421/?GT1=38001

Yes, He Can
Barack Obama should be able to disclose his small-dollar donors pretty easily.
By John Dickerson and Chris WilsonPosted Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008, at 6:50 PM ET

Barack Obama refuses to release the names of the 2 million-plus people who have given his campaign less than $200. According to campaign officials, it would be too difficult and time-consuming to extract this information from its database.

So how come we were able to do it in a couple hours? Not literally—we don't have access to the campaign's list of donors—but we created a database of similar size and format in a Web-ready file and posted it online. (You can view a sample text version of it here. The full version is 824 MB.)

But before we get into the technical details (though, if you're with the Obama campaign and want to skip ahead, please do), it's worth dwelling on the reasons for the Obama campaign's reluctance to disclose this information. It can't be legal: No law prevents Obama from releasing these names.

Politically, there would be several advantages in releasing the names. Obama has campaigned (effectively) on a platform of making government more transparent, citing his efforts to do so in Chicago and Washington as signature achievements. He has also disclosed the bundlers who raise large amounts of money for his campaign. Finally, making the list public would rebut McCain's broad and unsubstantiated claims that the list (and the huge sums of money it represents) is shot through with fraud.

Of course, releasing the information would also be politically risky, since the inevitable errors in a database so huge (errors of the kind McCain also had, like a contribution from "Adorable Manabat") would give McCain an opportunity to scream fraud. Then again, he does that sometimes even without evidence.

And from a purely logistical standpoint, we have a hard time believing the campaign lacks the expertise to do this. We know the information is already in a very sophisticated database—it has to be, because the Obama campaign has been manipulating the information for more than a year as it continues to raise money from these small-fry donors. It also uses the information to contact and track donors to make sure they get out and vote on Election Day.

So much for the arguments. Now for the technical details. We created a randomly generated dummy database in Excel that consisted of 50,000 donors. Each entry had a field for all the data normally disclosed in a typical FEC filing for donors who give $200 or more: first name, last name, two address lines, city, state, ZIP code, employer, occupation, the amount of the donation, and the date it was given. (Excel 2003 maxes out at around 65,000 rows, and the Obama campaign is certainly using something much more sophisticated.)

To create an xml database from this data that approximates the size of Obama's donor database, we wrote a short script in Excel's built-in version of Visual Basic that looped through the database of 50,000 pretend donors 50 times, for a total of 2.5 million entries, adding each entry to an xml file. Even on a wheezing, overworked Dell Optiplex GX280 (2.8 GHz processor, 504 MB of RAM), this took exactly two hours. The resulting xml file was 824 MB—big, but not unheard of. Any competent developer could take this file and make a searchable application from it.

Web developers would be quick to point out that a huge xml file like this is too bulky for an online application to easily parse. For the Obama campaign to create a searchable database like the one the McCain campaign released, it would probably need to take a few extra steps to convert the xml document into something that can handle the size of the dataset, like MySQL. But simply for the purposes of releasing the raw data, a universal format like xml is sufficient.

Unsurprisingly, a campaign spokesman rejects the premise of our little experiment, saying the task they face is far more difficult than we think. The campaign's last FEC report, he notes, runs to 176,000 pages. But the number of pages isn't the relevant metric here; it's the size and shape of the database. And we're talking about something far less complex than an FEC report. Finally, since it's online, it requires no printer. All we're doing is rearranging 1's and 0's.

Obama aides also deflect the question about the names of the campaign's low-dollar donors by saying that the McCain has lapsed in reporting the names of more than 100,000 donors. They're right—and they illustrate the point by helpfully pointing to an online spreadsheet. Which also proves our point that it's easy to put this data together in a digestible form. So how 'bout it, guys?

<<<"An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens.">>>

Oh ya, well how about we see some of that transparency? Obama's actions speak louder than his words.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 5:54pm

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2004
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 6:07pm

"So if you are doing something that is illegal (not saying that he is....but he won't prove that he isn't)"


See, I have a huge problem with this statement, and others like it.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2004
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 6:20pm

"They are running for an office that has rules that must be followed.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2003
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 10:47pm

Here is an article that explains why not disclosing the names of small donors is a big problem: http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/Obama_fundraising_illegal/2008/09/29/135718.html I found this article while doing a Google search. It is on a conservative website. There are plenty of other sources that you can find with Google. A lot of problems could arise now that it is so easy to make donations over the internet. Something needs to be done so that all politicians can keep better track of their supporters.

Anyhow, this does not play a big roll in my vote since I have plenty of other reasons for not supporting Obama. His tax policy would discourage growth and would negatively affect us as consumers. Businesses that would survive his changes would be forced to cut down their workforce and to raise the prices of their services and products. Obama's plan to raise taxes on capital gains and dividends would hurt anyone who is investing his/her money or saving for retirement. Also, the Democrats hope to remove tax advantages from 401(k)s and other retirement plans. Some Democrats even want to take them over, which is extremely scary. Many of these changes would be hard to avoid in a filibuster-proof Congress. Obama's tax changes would cause our economy to go into a downward spiral.

Also, Obama and Biden want to cut defense spending, and they hope to get rid of our unproven missile defense program. Barney Frank hopes to cut defense spending by 25%. That is a very scary proposition. You may not agree with my positions on these issues, but at least you know that there are many reasons that McCain voters do not support Obama.

~Amy

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2006
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 10:58pm

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Wait, this already happened WITHOUT Mr. Obama's help...Mr. Bush has been in charge for almost eight years now...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2008
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 11:01pm
I disagree with your assessment of Obama's plans and proposals, but I appreciate that you are not painting a doomsday scenario based on one distraction. Granted, I understand that some people are actually worried about campaign finance and the issue of online donations, and in that case, it should be looked at adjusted for future campaigns. However, in the context of this election, this issue is a distraction from the real issues, such as taxes, the economy and the war. I appreciate seeing a conservative post that is assessing Obama based on those issues, even if I disagree with your conclusion. : )

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-24-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 7:13am

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It's as if some voters

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 8:46am
And you know this how?!?!?!
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-25-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 10:08am

They most certainly need to release all the information they are required to release.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2007
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 10:43am

If it is such a huge issue maybe they will see the outcry of this year as enough incentive to make a change to the law moving forward.

Jess


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