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Barack Obama opts out of public financing and Fred Hiatt writes:
BARACK OBAMA isn’t abandoning his pledge to take public financing for the general election campaign because it’s in his political interest. Certainly not. He isn’t about to become the first candidate since Watergate to run an election fueled entirely with private money because he will be able to raise far more that way than the mere $85 million he’d get if he stuck to his promise — and with which his Republican opponent, John McCain, will have to make do. No, Mr. Obama, or so he would have you believe, is forgoing the money because he is so committed to public financing. Really, it hurts him more than it hurts Fred Wertheimer.
Pardon the sarcasm.
[...]
Mr. Obama had an opportunity here to demonstrate that he really is a different kind of politician, willing to put principles and the promises he has made above political calculation.
It seems to me that Obama is being a different kind of politician by being the first Presidential candidate in thirty odd years to forgo public financing. That’s certainly "different".
Frankly I’m surprised that we have already reached the "it’s not fair!" portion of the campaign where journalists, who love a political horse race more than what’s good for the country, start complaining that the young guy is beating up on the old guy and that Obama should spot McCain a few strokes just to make it fair or interesting. These guys won’t be happy until Obama offers to tie one hand behind his back, and then later, they’ll mock him for doing it.
That’s how they roll.
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Soon, there will be a proposed Constitutional amendment to turn the Presidential elections over to one of the TV networks, so it can become the newest, biggest reality show. The networks have already been treating it as such, all that remains is to sign the contracts (not unlike the pending deals for the Iraq oil fields)…
As a commenter over at B-J said, the Republicans are pissed that the Dems are not unilaterally disarming as they usually do. You know McCain would have gone for the private cash if he thought for an instant he could make more that way.
indeed; what remains to be seen is how much of a maverick Obama will be when it comes to bucking the trend and dissing the news media and their ho-hum approach to “covering” the election.
I would love nothing more than to see Obama flip them all the bird and opt out of one or more of their stupid
game showsdebates in order to focus on having a real dialog with the nation about the issues at hand. Then they can whine about how he’s not being fair — but of course, what they’ll really means is: he’s not playing their game by their rules so that they don’t have to do any real work.Agreed; I hate these so-called debates, they are vapid, shallow, and designed to be more of an “Oh, snap!” -fest than offer any substantive information.
I realize the networks all think we are (1) stupid, and (2) not able to process info not pre-formed into a Britney/American Idol format, though I suspect some discussion of issues that really do make a difference in people’s daily lives (health care, inflation, wages, etc.) would really draw some proletarian attention. I suppose that is the reason why we can’t have that happening, can we?
In that event, the complaint wouldn’t be “he’s not being fair.”
The media would say “he’s afraid to answer questions for the American people and here are some reasons we speculate might have caused that…” and then they will say all the crass bullshit they already planned to say about him.
Insurance mogul W. Clement Stone gave Tricky Dick 100 large in 1972, which prompted the outcry for public financing.
The spirit of public financing was to reduce the undue influence of the wealthy on national elections.
Obama raises his cash largely from small, grass roots donations — no violation of the spirit of PF.
McInane leveraged public financing to secure loans to his campaign, which was a violation of PF law.
So who’s the hypocrite?
Well boo-freaking hoo. Funny how Mr. Hiatt neglects to mention McCain’s current troubles with the FEC and his bait and switch during the primaries.
I really love the hypocracy that NOT sucking at the public teat is somehow now a bad thing.
Cry me a river, Hiatt. If McCain was able to raise fistfuls of money and opted out of public financing you’d fall all over yourself to praise him as a maverick and a man of the people.
Here’s the deal: Obama went off-script and that’s a pisser for people like Hiatt. He was supposed to accept public financing and so would McCain. Then the Republican 527’s and astro-turf groups would beat the shit out of him with no financial limits. They’d break the rules, of course, and the FEC would rap their knuckles for it – after the election. Obama isn’t going to try to kick the football, Lucy. Suck on that.
Oh Fred can you tell me the story of how wacky Macs presidential funding is morally superior? Or tell me if he could get noticed in the crowd at the shuffleboard court and had the ability to raise a few hundred million he wouldn’t? I love fairy tales.
If Obama raises 550M or so, he should give 85M just to black candidates. Make Fred Hiatt cry.
Shorter Hiatt:
“Waaaah! Waaaaah! Obama isn’t playing into our carefully constructed narrative!”
Obama is a different sort of Democrat in that he won’t let Fred Hiatt bully him into stupidly jeopardizing his chances.
This just in:
Obama refuses to campaign on his knees.
A McCain campaign spokesman responded, “Senator Obama’s refusal to campaign on his knees is just another example of how he is for politics as usual. By stubbornly remaining taller than a genuine American hero, Senator Obama calls into question his own patriotism and encourages the terrorists. Don’t forget that Osama bin Laden is taller than Senator McCain. I leave it to you to decide whether this is just a coincidence.”
JayBrida: I think Fred Hiatt and other beltway oracles would argue that should Obama raise 550M he ought to give 85M to John McCain as some sort of reverse affirmative action deal. And then, once he gave it, they would be quick to argue that he was patronizing and racist in doing so. You just can’t win with these suckers.
You slammed that one out of the park. They sneer at Democrats as brutes or they sneer at Democrats as weakling.
And McCain gets doughnuts – with sprinkles.
His fund raisers can eat shit and die next time they call for a donation from me. FISA compromise my ass.
not only is mccain playing footsie with his public funding
status, he is currently tap dancing around his own campaign finance law
with a 527. when it comes to national elections, this guy has all the
ethics of charles keating.
Ha ha ha.
They’re really shittin’ themselves, aren’t they?
Have you see today’s David Brooks?
Bush ran in the 2004 general w/o public funding
Actually I think it was the primary that he opted out from, just like Dean (followed by Kerry) – for the general, both Bush and Kerry took public funds.
The shameless thing about Bush in ‘04 was he ran unopposed in the primary but still raised many, many millions (180 mill rings a bell for some reason) but still essentially put it toward the general by pre-buying things and setting up field offices and whatnot before the convention, which itself was held really really late to maximize his use of primary election (and thus non-spending cap) funds.
Notice how every single news story on this issue has made the “NOT SINCE WATERGATE” comparison. Sounds like they’re trying to taint Obama as being somehow associated with Tricky Dick.
Where does the meme that Obama PLEDGED to use public funds for the general election come from? Is Hiatt just outright lying, or is there a video somewhere of Obama pledging to do this? As far as I know, he promised to consider it, but never promised to do it.