Sen. Barack Obama has opted out of the public financing system for presidential elections that dates back to Watergate. He previously said he'd accept federal money.
Obama cut his teeth as a community organizer in Chicago, and has proven he learned his lessons well. His national campaign organization---especially its use of the Internet for small-donor fundraising---has been the talk of Washington for months.
From the New York Times:
...Even the Supreme Court, in a 2003 decision upholding the McCain-Feingold measure that banned soft money from politics, recognized how difficult it is to shut off the spigot of special interest money in politics. “Money, like water, will always find an outlet,” the court wrote.
These days the outlet is the Internet, the tool that enabled Mr. Obama to break his promise that he would accept public funds.
But the use of the Internet to raise campaign money at least plays into the spirit of campaign finance reform, some analysts said, and possibly does more to rein in the influence of big donors and special interests than 30 years of restrictions imposed by federal law.
...Reformers have long said the current system forces candidates to spend a disproportionate amount of time raising money and courting the wealthy and others with special interests who can easily raise it.
But by showing that he could raise large sums from small donors — 47 percent of the $263 million Mr. Obama received has come in amounts of $200 or less — Mr. Obama has made the argument that he has achieved online what the public finance system has been unable to do. And he has been freed from the necessity of spending countless hours fund-raising.
“The reality is that the amount of money that comes from the government is not enough to run a modern presidential campaign,” said Larry Makinson, a consultant to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks campaign donations. “The amount Obama has raised from small contributors has been unprecedented. There has never been an infusion of small dollar donors like this."
John Kerry ran out of money in 2004, while George W. Bush's friends "Swiftboated" him with ads paid for through "527" organizations: tax-exempt groups that do not face regulation by the Federal Election Committee.
From a purely Machiavellian standpoint---he's in it to win it, after all---Obama's decision is a no-brainer. However, as Ricky Ricardo would say, he's got some "'splainin' to do", at least in the short-term.
Sen. Obama is being called a "flip-flopper" (shades of 2004!) for his decision to turn down public financing. It's a stupid term, yet it's more or less accurate in this case.
Everybody knows that the money involved in politics is like crack in a junkie's pipe. Everybody also knows that even a practitioner of "new politics" is still just a politician.
And everybody knows all politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths, one side for each of their two faces.
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