The Obama Report

On Sunday I noted that Barack Obama had received $10,000 in campaign contributions for his 2004 US senate primary run from Mr. Raghuveer Nayak, an Illinois businessman now caught up in the federal investigation of Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. [For additional information on the Obama-Nayak connection and Mr. Nayak's ties to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, click here.] I then went on to say that Mr. Nayak's $10,000 campaign contribution had exceeded the maximum amount permitted by law. However, after re-examining the matter, I now acknowledge that I was mistaken.

Under the “millionaire’s amendment” - which was written into the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 - Barack Obama was permitted to accept up to $12,000 in campaign donations [per donor] since his opponent, Blair Hull, a wealthy investor, had poured $28 million of his own money into the campaign.The “millionaire’s amendment” was overturned by the Supreme Court earlier this year, however, in 2004 it still had not been overturned.

Now, it is well known that in this year's presidential race, Barack Obama received campaign contributions that were well over the legal limit. It is also well known that some of Obama's donations came from abroad and that his website had intentionally disabled all the basic credit-card-processing security checks, thereby enabling multiple contributions from donors with fake names.

The blogosphere has already written about Obama's deceptive and slimy fund-raising techniques ad nauseum. No need to elaborate on that right now. However, as far as Mr. Nayak's $10,000 in campaign contributions are concerned, the president-elect is in the clear. I stand corrected and my earlier post is now officially deleted.