Presidential Candidates Expand Fund-Raising In Foreign Countries

Is it any wonder Americans no longer own America. Candidates will go anywhere and everywhere to raise funds. If you ask a politician whether they feel beholden to a foreign interest after taking money from them, just as they are when they take money from lobbyists, the answer, predictably, will be no. You and I know better. They are selling us out:

The intense pursuit of money in the presidential campaigns and the many wealthy Americans working at hedge funds and other businesses worldwide have led candidates to broaden fund-raising overseas, especially financial centers like London and Hong Kong.

Although the money is coming from American citizens working and living abroad, the contributions carry with them interests--outsourcing:

By the end of June, the candidates had raised a combined total of $551,000 abroad, compared with $31,525 at the same point in 2003 and nearly $1 million for the entire election cycle.

The increase appears driven by factors like the ease of donating on the Internet, a diaspora among financial workers in an increasingly global economy and the unending needs of campaigns to cast as wide a net as possible.

Remember the Clinton scandals from 1996:

Raising money overseas is not without its perils. After the election in 1996, the Democratic Party and fund-raisers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after the Federal Election Commission ruled that the party had received more than $1 million in illegal contributions from Asians before the election.

Although the situations are not parallel, Mrs. Clinton’s opponents recently invoked the memory of that scandal when a major fund-raiser, Norman Hsu, who was born in Hong Kong, was arrested.

Doesn't sound like reforming politics in Washington, as Mr.Obama likes to talk about. I wonder how many of his supporters know he takes foreign money:

Mr. Obama, who has raised more money from abroad than all other candidates, $251,000, appears to benefit from a successful Internet operation. His Beijing videoconference appears to have been a success. He has collected nearly $25,000 from donors in China, the most of all candidates.