FUNDING HATE SPEECH:

Obamas Donated Less Than 1% of Their 2000-2004 Income (Ryan J. Donmoyer and Julianna Goldman, 3/25/08, Bloomberg)

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.

The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income. [...]

In 1998, then-Vice President Al Gore was criticized for donating only $353 to charity in 1997 despite earning $197,729. [...]

The Obamas made their church, Trinity United Church of Christ, one of the biggest beneficiaries of their philanthropy, donating $27,500.