[lbo-talk] Obama ingeniously wiggling out of public finance pledge

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Apr 9 06:46:32 PDT 2008


[from The Note - you can understand why he's doing it, but the justification is almost Clintonian in its ingenuity - those folks who pledged $100 on the web? I'm sure Barry will be taking their calls]

The Wall Street Journal's Mary Jacoby and T.W. Farnam provide some perspective on the $15 million McCain raised last month: "Sen. McCain's March total compares with the $11.6 million he raised in February and $11.8 million in January, reflecting the time he has spent at high-dollar fund-raisers around the country. But he is being vastly out-raised by his Democratic rivals, underscoring the Arizonan's larger problems motivating the Republican base."

That's one reason Obama may not be so keen on keeping his promise to pursue an agreement on public financing.

His argument: My donors are cleaner than yours. "We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally reserved for the wealthy and the powerful," Obama said Tuesday night at a Washington fundraiser, per ABC's Jake Tapper.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list