When running for President, Obama's gotta give to receive vs. Hillary

Posted Mar 25th 2008 5:09PM by Zack Miller
Filed under: Other Issues, Press Releases, Politics, Presidential Elections

There's an old adage that you've got to give sometimes in order to receive. Nowhere is that more true than in modern-day politics where the level of candidate scrutinization had reached epic heights. While no politico myself, I do recognize a savvy move when I see one, and I think I just spotted one.

Obama just released his 2000-2006 tax returns into the public domain and is now urging Hillary Clinton to do the same. Why subject your filings to the public sphere? This armchair pundit believes that Obama knows something about the Clinton filings and is upping the ante to push them to the same level of disclosure.

But once we've got the filings, what do they tell us about Obama? Well, Bloomberg is taking the Obamas to task for not quite giving as charitably as they could. In an article out today, Bloomberg writes that the Obamas gave less than 1% of their 2000-2004 income to charity.

To be fair, after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book in 2005, the Obamas donated $137,622 over two years, or around 5% of their earnings over 2 years. While this humble author should definitely be giving more of his hard-earned bread to the needy, it's interesting to read how those positioning to lead our country view charitable giving.

What's lurking behind the Clinton tax returns is anyone's wild guess. I have to admit that I'm pretty curious though...

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Tags: charity, clinton, obama, president, tax