June 23, 2008
Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of federal campaign financing has riled newspaper editorialists, TV pundits and even some progressives who view regulating “money in politics” as the silver bullet to kill the special-interest domination of Washington.
But the fury over Obama’s choice to rely on his Internet-based small donors – rather than take nearly $85 million in federal funding – misses a difficult truth that may be especially heretical on the Left: campaign-finance reform has been, by and large, a failure.
4 comments:
just lay off that decision damn
simple credit repairs
Thanks for this very interesting run-down on campaign reform. If it is such problem for the media to tell the world about this, perhaps Consortium should think about asking for contributions in order to place a full page ad in the NY Times and Wash.Post, in order to reprint this column for all to read - and dare the other publications to show how "unbiased" they really are. Somehow this information should be more wide spread. Just keep at it! We need to know about things like this.
Thanks for all you do. Another excellent view on a much ballyhood subject. There is so much distortion of the details, and comments taken out of context, in the media, be it the MSM on TV or newspapers, it is no wonder that the people are confused.
Your blog is an important daily read!
PS And thanks also for your great books... All of them!
Perhaps campaign finance reform's failure could be better illustrated by the fact that John McCain has BROKEN THE LAW that bears his name. He used the promise of public financing as collateral for a
private loan so support his campaign. This is not a matter of a legal choice, or an opting in or out of a process, it is against the law.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23269736/
When the author of campaign finance reform does not comply with the law that bears his name (this story is from February 2008), it is safe to say that the system is broken. That is not to say that Barack Obama is above reproach, although a significant percentage of his fundraising has come from private citizens who contribute less than $100. To point to Obama's withdrawal from the public financing program without mentioning McCain's actions is a bit one-sided, and seems to be repeating the kind of MSM distortion to which your site is usually an antidote.
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