No, it’s not the Huffington Post, which was bad enough.  This comes from the Barack Obama campaign, which will supposedly raise a billion dollars, cash that apparently won’t go to hiring a designer.  And that’s doubly ironic, given that the entire point of the design contest is to — well, read for yourself:

Obama for America is seeking poster submissions from artists across the country illustrating why we support President Obama’s plan to create jobs now, and why we’ll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years.

Yes, you read that right.  They want people to submit designs for posters to promote American jobs — and they don’t want to hire anyone to produce the posters themselves.  Not only do they want the design for free, they want to make sure that the artists can’t later profit from their own work:

When you submit your design, please include the title of your poster, a short paragraph about it, and your name as you’d like it to appear. All submissions will become the property of Obama for America.

Redistribution, baby!  It means you give up your property, and they keep it.

Here’s a screenshot of the contest page:

Oh, but if you’re one of the winners, you do get compensation …

We’ll pick the 12 best submissions received by November 4th, 2011, then put the finalists to a vote. Three winners will receive a framed print of their poster signed by President Obama and a limited edition of their poster will be sold in the campaign store.

Will it really be signed by Obama — or by his autopen?

At least Obama and his team are consistent.  They’ll lecture us all day on how to live our lives, but refuse to follow their own advice.

Update: Say, here’s a question I’m seeing raised on Twitter and in the comments.  Wouldn’t a contribution with as much value as a graphic design for mass-produced posters be substantial enough to count as an in-kind contribution to the campaign?