Slate shows that Obama could easily disclose his small-donor list if he wanted to do so. They produce a searchable database (from dummy information, obviously) in a couple of hours using Microsoft Excel and one commodity PC. This puts the lie to the campaign’s claim that it’s infeasible for them to do so.
Slate suggests that they ought to do so, writing:
Politically, there would be several advantages in releasing the names. Obama has campaigned (effectively) on a platform of making government more transparent, citing his efforts to do so in Chicago and Washington as signature achievements. He has also disclosed the bundlers who raise large amounts of money for his campaign. Finally, making the list public would rebut McCain’s broad and unsubstantiated claims that the list (and the huge sums of money it represents) is shot through with fraud.
(They write this without a hint of irony.) Slate is right, it would be to his advantage to release the list, if indeed he has nothing to hide. Too bad Slate cannot see the implications of their own experiment.
(Via Instapundit.)
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