NRA invests $40M in campaign against Obama
Politico.com has reported that the NRA plans a “Fall blitz” of advertising against Obama, investing a total of $40M to help elect McCain. That amount includes $15M directly targeted at adverts describing Obama as a threat to the Americans’ “right to bear arms”. The article quotes Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s political arm, as saying: “Our members understand that if Barack Obama is elected president, and he has support in the Senate to confirm anti-gun Supreme Court nominees, [the District of Columbia v. Heller decision] could be taken away from us in the future.”
Foreigners are often bemused by the American insistence on the right to own guns - knife crime is bad enough - but there is an even more important point to be made. Obama has been accused of “flip-flopping” on his pledge to use public campaign financing, but the NRA’s $40M investment makes it obvious that the Republican budget will not be limited to the relatively small amount ($85M) officially available to McCain. This is clearly one of the loopholes in the “broken system” that Obama and his advisors were talking about.
Tags: NRA