This week, The Huffington Post broke a story that disgraced Barclays CEO, Robert Diamond, rescinded an offer to co-host a pricey London fundraiser for Mitt Romney. Apparently, he wanted to keep his own difficulties from tainting Romney. Yet, despite Diamonds withdrawal from the affair, the fundraiser is expected to go on with other British hosts.
This story raises a number of questions for US voters.
When did it become acceptable for foreigners to fund US candidates? What do they expect in return? More important, why would Romney even consider accepting money from such an event?
According to the HuffPost article, the fundraiser will occur while Romney is in London for the Summer Olympics. Those who attend the fundraiser will be expected to pay $25,000-$75,000 for dinner; far more than fundraisers for British politicians. Of course, this comes on top of concerns that the Romney campaign and its Super PACs have already received anonymous contributions from other foreign entities, including money from China.
The slogan for the Romney campaign is Believe in America. In fact, most of us do believe in America. But, based on Romneys avoidance of US income taxes and his willingness to accept money from foreign interests, its obvious that Romney doesnt.