Posted on 04/25/2007 5:36:19 AM PDT by Mike Bates
Giving, service and compassion are recurrent themes on the campaign trail for Sen. Barack Obama, but the Democratic presidential contender has only recently dug deep into his own pockets to support charitable causes.
Obama has enjoyed a robust household income throughout his political career in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate. But for most of that time he has reported comparatively little by national standards in charitable contributions on his tax returns, records released by Obama show.
Public attention to charitable gifts has led to uncomfortable moments for prominent political figures. Former Vice President Al Gore came in for withering ridicule in 1998 when his tax return showed he had contributed just $353 to charity. So did former President Bill Clinton, after a review of old tax returns revealed that he had once claimed a $75 deduction for donating a suit with ripped pants to the Salvation Army, as well as $2 for a pair of used underwear and $9 for six pairs of used socks.
Obama's household income has been inflated the last two years from the proceeds of lucrative book deals he signed shortly before entering the Senate in 2005. He pledged to turn over $200,000 of the book money to charity.
On their just-filed 2006 tax return, Obama and his wife, a hospital administrator, reported taxable income of $983,626 and claimed deductions for $60,307 in charitable donations. In 2005 they earned a combined $1.65 million and gave away about $77,300.
In 2002, the year before Obama launched his campaign for U.S. Senate, the Obamas reported income of $259,394, ranking them in the top 2 percent of U.S. households, according to Census Bureau statistics. That year the Obamas claimed $1,050 in deductions for gifts to charity, or 0.4 percent of their income.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
That picture made me laugh out loud.
The truly charitable do good when no one is looking.
He is being observed.
The subject is therefore changing his observed behavior.
It doesn’t count and it does not reflect his true Muslim beliefs.
The Manchurian Candidate must be defeated.
As Biden said, BO is “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”.
Great picture. Wonder what Joe Biden would say...
I think most liberals think being liberal is in itself an act of charity. This is why so many are racists, misogynists, stingy givers, etc.
If its ‘real charity’ you don’t take the write off.
But then how could candidates strut their "compassion" without records to back it up?
Says it all. It's all for show.
ROTFLOL!!!
More accurate that the chocolate Jesus/obama.
But among liberals, "show" is always good enough.
$353 to charity is nothing. So he went from nothing to the big show.
As usual, the lefties are only generous with other people’s money, never their own until election time concerns prevail.
The story pointed out how cheap Clinton was, but Gore was also caught being miserly.
$353 was pretty generous when you consider the rest of his "giving" went to buying carbon credits.
“If its ‘real charity’ you don’t take the write off.
But then how could candidates strut their “compassion” without records to back it up?”
How does anyone take it seriously when they write it off?
Just another illustration of how liberals only like to give other peoples money to the less fortunate. And when they do give out of their own pocket it’s only as a means of promoting an image, that’s not charity, that’s an investment.
“$353 was pretty generous when you consider the rest of his “giving” went to buying carbon credits.”
Think I have figured out where the carbon credits come from. I bought a long iron rod (about 6’ long, inch or so in diameter) from the farm supply store. Made in China - not too much the Chinese can do to foul up a piece of iron, I thought. It is shaped somewhat like a large nail with the pointed end flattened like a cold chisel. It works pretty good to cut roots when I dig out stumps. However, when I went to use it as a pry bar, it bent very easily. They had left out the heat treatment part.
I really pity the poor sorry soul who ended up with Clintigula's used underwear. That is just plain nasty!
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