Reacting to news that, contrary to previous promises, Barack Obama has bowed out of the public financing system so that he can spend unlimited amounts of money (or, at least, as much as he can raise) in his general election battle with John McCain, Steven Taylor observes,
The calculus is pretty easy: does one think that the money one can raise will increase one’s chances to win more than the criticism one will take for breaking a previous pledge will decrease one’s chances to win?
Exactly right. And, given that he Obama could well raise more money than McCain and the Republican National Committee combined, it’s a pretty easy call to make.
Obama’s excuse for dropping out, however, does take a bit of gall: It’s McCain’s fault!
“In the past couple of weeks, our campaign counsels met and it was immediately clear that McCain’s campaign had no interest in the possibility of an agreement,” [Obama spokesman Bill] Burton said. “When asked about the RNC’s months of raising and spending for the general election, McCain’s campaign could only offer its expectation that the Obama campaign would probably, sooner or later, catch up. And shortly thereafter, Senator McCain signaled to the 527s that they were free to run wild, without objection.”
What signal was this, exactly? And is Obama going to stop surrogates from running sleazy commercials against McCain? If so, how?
Image via politricks
