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The Spirit vs the Agreement on Public Financing of Campaigns

April 9th, 2008
By PAUL SILVER

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I have to admit that I am torn by the notion that Obama may bypass public financing It backs out of an agreement while also respecting the intention behind the agreement.

For me the intention behind the public financing of campaigns is to minimize the disproportionate influence of special interests while reducing the amount of time a candidate needs to spend pandering for money. Obama has achieved this with his unprecedented internet collections from over 1.2 million donors. John McCain’s candidacy is relatively less motivating to his supporters and so Public Financing may look attractive to him.

The current laws for public financing do not anticipate that so much money could be raised from so many people. And now we learn that perhaps it should by factoring it into the calculations for how much public money is needed to create a level playing field. Or if we are bold enough we might consider eliminating most campaign finance rules except those limiting the amount that can be given while limiting the source of funds to only individuals and not legal entities. This logic of limiting how much an individual can give is that, while each of us should have a right to be heard, we should not have a right to block our opposition from being heard.

Since the GOP has been the main obstacle to public financing (by equating speech and money) perhaps this changing landscape will inspire their leadership in reforming the guidelines for fair elections free of special interest influence.

Nothing like a turn of events to convert opponents into champions.



This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Campaign Reform. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 9 Comments

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    Hahahahahahaha....

    Sen. Obama re-states his commitment to the principle of public financing...and then tosses it out the window!!!

    Hmmm...since the tea leaves suggest that the Democrats will be in charge of the House, the Senate, and perhaps the WH...is it not sort of odd to place the burden on the GOP leadership to reform the guidelines? It is very likely that after 2009 the Democrats will be able to mandate these guidelines whenever they wish.

    Will they? Hahahahahahahaha...

    The real story here is the wonder that is Obama:

    Once again, Obama is able to trumpet his call for "New Politics"...then play the same old political games...and yet have so many admire his ethical principles...in SAYING ONE THING, and DOING exactly the OPPOSITE.

    I grow more admiring of his Machiavellianism every day.
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    Senator Obama is playing "New Politics" since he's new to the game on the big stage but plays the game well. So I take "New Politics" as saying I'M NEW! heh heh heh...

    But let's get real, a big strength that Senator Obama has is his ability to motivate. He does a unbelievable job of it. And the way he does it hasn't been seen in awhile. So in that regard he may seem "new" when he's really more of a throwback.
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    Obama said he'd seek an agreement to have a publicly financed election. This agreement would include a way to limit those 527s and whatnots from creating an imbalance. Since such an agreement would probably never be possible, his earlier "promise" was just a bluff.
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    Well he's still got a fight with Clinton to resolve. After that who knows. I'm sure if he decided to go with the public finance agreement you guys would be calling him a naive newbie for hamstringing himself in such an important race.
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    great pitch Paul.

    dr.e
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    As I recall Obama said he would entertain public financing in the general election if his opponent would commit.

    Well his opponent is McCain, who not only committed to public financing for the primary but was forced to so he could get his name on the ballot in OH (McCain didn't have the resources to get his name on the OH ballot w/out accepting public financing). We all know that as soon as it was in McCain's favor to back-off from the public financing he did so like a rocket. And McCain is breaking quite a few public financing laws. This attitude of "being above the laws" should be troubling to all Americans. Don't our presidents swear an oath to uphold our laws?

    In my eyes Obama is completely released from even considering public financing in the general election if McCain is the Repub. nominee.

    If Obama were to come to an agreement with McCain to accept public financing in the general election, and if McCain decided it was in his best interests to suddenly break from it, regardless of what the law said, then everyone on here would say that Obama was naive to believe that McCain would actually uphold his end of the bargain. McCain hasn't to date with regards to public financing and continues to defy authority on this aspect. There is absolutely no reasonable expectation that McCain would keep his end of the bargain up.

    Now if Obama were facing someone else (let's say McCain pulled out of the race for some reason), then I would expect Obama to uphold his original commitment- which is to come to an agreement to accept public financing and limit the influence of those 527s. Though as ChrisWWW pointed out that may not be possible.

    Speaking of which, ChrisWW "...(Obama's) earlier "promise" was just a bluff". Well, I think Obama's "promise" wasn't to accept public financing in the general election, but to accept it if his opponent would. McCain's actions (which continue as I write this) has taken away all credibility McCain had on this. Obama made the "promise" in good faith.
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    It's premature to jump all over this. It would become an issue only if McCain goes ahead with public financing, and Obame doesn't.
    That was the extent of the 'promise', that it would be a both candidates deal.
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    runasim- I would agree with you if McCain hadn't already shown his willingness to accept pf in the primary, only to dump it when it no longer suited him. And he is currently breaking the laws on this since he has not been released from his pf agreement by the FEC. Given McCain's snubbing of pf, which he benefited from, Obama (or HIllary) is under no "promise" to consider accepting pf in the general. McCain has no credibility here. This isn't what I want in a president, a thumbing of the nose at laws when they don't work to McCain's advantage.

    It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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    Out of the over 400 members of Congress, only about 50 incumbents are in competitive races. that means that there are probably 200-300 races that are so uncompetitive that the incumbent does not really have to mount an election or raise money.

    The argument that most politicians spend all of their time raising funds is spurious. Most of them are not required to raise any funds.

    It could be nice if you would just admit that the idea of public financing is to lock in the huge demographic advantages that the Democratic Party enjoys and to give more political power to left of center special interest (unions, public service employees, universities) while taking away influence from the Chamber of Commerce types.
 
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