Barack Obama may have just killed campaign finance reform as we know it by refusing to participate in government financed government. He won’t be taking any money paid in taxes to run his campaign. Good for him. It looks great on John McCain.
John’s guys say it’s fine, too.
“We think $85 million in public funding for the general election is plenty,” McCain’s general counsel, Trevor Potter, said.
Suuure you do. Obama is likely to have $400 million. This “$85 million is plenty” stuff is just whistling past the graveyard where your own freshly chiseled headstone is standing behind an open grave.
For Obama to blame McCain for Obama’s own flip on this is clearly disingenuous, but it just tickles me to see McCain’s own petard exploding beneath him. It’s his own ICD (Improvised Censorship Device) that got him. And he’s not even getting any credit for the morality play he thinks he’s playing lead in: It’s all McCain’s fault that Obama can’t take public funds, you see, and ACORN and George Soros and MoveOn don’t count:
McCain is “not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,” Obama said.
McCain has decried the spending and attack ads by such groups and has promised to speak out against those campaigning on behalf of Republicans.
Ah yes, speaking out against those campaigning on behalf of Republicans is what you do very well, John. I hear you, so don’t be concerned I’ll make the mistake.
“Anyone who believes they could assist my campaign by exploiting a loophole in campaign-finance laws is doing me and our country a disservice,” McCain said in November.
Au contraire, John, they’re doing us all a favor by sticking your own pet cause where it belongs. You’re the guy who already tried to stop anti-Obama ads in North Carolina. See what it’s gotten you? Alienated Republicans. And while you continue to “reach out,” you’re gonna be outspent 5 to 1 by a loophole exploiter. You go, John. And take Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham, Michael Bloomberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Lincoln Chafee, Christopher Shays and Vernon Ehlers with you.
Not that Obama thinks Campaign Finance Reform is a bad idea (and why would he, since it’s his opponent who’s stuck in it). It’s good for other people, however.
Obama acknowledged, however, that other candidates are not likely to be able to be as successful attracting small donors as he has been, so he still supports campaign finance reform.
Tell it to George Soros, Barack, and then run attack ads against McCain in all 50 States. He’ll soon be pining for the civility of the 2000 North Carolina primary.
Obama’s campaign today released its first general-election television advertisement and said it will be broadcast in some traditionally Republican states, such as Alaska, North Dakota and Montana, as well as battlegrounds such as Florida.
The only thing tempering my enthusiam here is that after Obama is annointed elected, he’ll have a whole new set of ideas about how to gut the First Amendment. Then I’ll be pining for the days of the current FECless regulations.