April 27, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
What does Barack Obama’s philanthropy say about the presidential hopeful?
Political bloggers weighed in on the subject after the Chicago Tribune
reported this week that the Democratic senator from Illinois and his wife donated $60,307 last year to charity, about 6 percent of their income.
In previous years, the newspaper said that their charitable deductions as a percentage of income lagged behind the national average of 2.2 percent of household income.
Interpretations of this fact, to no surprise, fell along partisan lines.
Marathon Pundit, written by the conservative blog writer John Ruberry, calls the Obamas “charity cheapskates.”
But he says that he was little surprised by the article about Senator Obama. “He’s a typical liberal—he expects the government to take care of all the nation’s problems,” he writes.
Then again, Think on These Things, a liberal blog, says that during the years the newspaper reported the senator’s giving was lower than the national average as a percentage of his income, he was not in a financial position to be making big gifts.
He was paying off student loans and his income only recently grew thanks to increased sales of his books, says the writer, who is identified only as Sagereader. Mr. Obama actually should be praised for being prudent with his money during those lean years, the blogger writes. “It makes me confident he will do a good job taking care of America’s budget,” the blog says.
Mr. Obama isn’t the only politician to have his philanthropy examined. Read The Chronicle’s article about President Bush’s charitable giving in 2006.
What do you think? Is examining a politician’s charitable giving a good way to judge him or her? Click on the comments link just below this posting to share your thoughts.
