In today’s speech before Alliance for American Manufacturing, Barack Obama repeats a slippery line that he’s used in commercials and his stump speech, that he doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists. Fact checkers have pointed out that this not too different from his claim that he takes no money from corporations (accurate, but corporations are forbidden from making direct contributions, so he bragging about doing something every candidate does). Like everyone else, Obama takes plenty of cash from corporate employees, who donations are often ‘bundled’ by wealthy organizers.

And until the press starts really calling him on it – mentioning that in the main articles of his speech, not some separate once-a-week fact check sidebar – he’s going to keep making this dubious claim and touting his moral superiority.

Obama today:

I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists, and I’m here to tell you that you can count on me to stand up for you after this election, just as I’ve been standing up for workers all my life. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

The Washington Post, Friday:

Seventy-nine “bundlers,” five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed…
The list includes partners from 18 top law firms, 21 Wall Street executives and power brokers from Fortune 500 companies. California is the top source, with 19 bundlers. Both Illinois and Washington, D.C., have six, and five hail from New York.
Among the group are businessmen such as Kenneth Griffin, a famously private 39-year-old billionaire who threw his support behind Obama’s presidential campaign just as he hired a team of lobbyists to urge Congress to preserve a lucrative tax loophole.
A year ago, Griffin invited Obama to speak to employees of his Chicago hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, and in subsequent months, employees and their families gave the candidate nearly $200,000. Griffin had previously backed Republicans, including Obama’s initial U.S. Senate opponent.
…Several on Obama’s list at least appear to have interests in conflict with his platform. There is the billionaire casino developer who plans to put a slot parlor in Philadelphia; Obama has decried gambling for its steep “moral and social cost.” And there is the director of General Dynamics, the military supplier that has seen profits soar since the onset of the Iraq war and that has benefited from at least one Obama earmark.

FactCheck.org:

In addition, two oil industry executives are bundling money for Obama – drumming up contributions from individuals and turning them over to the campaign. George Kaiser, the chairman of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., ranks 68th on the Forbes list of world billionaires. He’s listed on Obama’s Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the candidate. Robert Cavnar is president and CEO of Milagro Exploration LLC, an oil exploration and production company. He’s named as a bundler in the same category as Kaiser.

Also from FactCheck.org:

Nevertheless, Obama accepts money from lobbyists’ spouses and other family members, their partners at the law firms where they work if the partners aren’t registered to lobby, senior executives at companies that hire lobbyists, and state-level lobbyists. Among his top fundraisers are at least a few who were registered lobbyists as recently as last year, such as Alan Solomont, who says he withdrew his registration as soon as he signed on to raise money for Obama. The campaign says it is making a “best effort” to stay away from tainted money. “It isn’t a perfect solution to the problem and it isn’t even a perfect symbol,” spokesman Burton has said.

When Mitt Romney made a much more plausible claim about having no lobbyists running his campaign, during a campaign stop at a Staples, the AP correspondent heckled him. Now, I’m not saying that those on the trail with Obama have to follow the path of Glen Johnson’s intemperate outburst, but they can call BS in the most powerful tool they have, the stories they file.