On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Doug Henwood wrote:
> The Note notes this morning that Hillary is the first major party pres
> candidate in modern times to reject public financing.
I don't think the Note is right here. Right now we're talking about primary funding. Bush rejected public financing for that in 2000, and Bush, Kerry and Dean all did in 2004. What would be a first would be if either of the major party candidates rejected public financing for the general election. Which could well happen. But it's not something we can talk about now since no one knows who those candidates will be.
As for the primaries, it looks this may be the year when rejecting the public funds may become the norm for both parties as the public funding system becomes availed of only by losers:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6881333&ft=1&f=1001
In which case, Hillary won't stand out, she'll just be part of the trend.
Michael