Campbell Brown, Months Late on the Campaign Finance Broken Promise?

On tonight’s, No Bias, No Bull, CB brings up the past.

Without question, Obama has set the bar at new height with a truly staggering sum of cash. And that is why as we approach this November, it is worth reminding ourselves what Barack Obama said last November.

One year ago, he made a promise. He pledged to accept public financing and to work with the Republican nominee to ensure that they both operated within those limits.

Then it became clear to Sen. Obama and his campaign that he was going to be able to raise on his own far more cash than he would get with public financing. So Obama went back on his word.

Now, she mentions it because of the ridiculous display of that fund-raising that is tomorrow night’s address. I wonder, as much as I agree with her, is it relevant? Long ago, Obama’s moved was defended by apologists who argued that abandoning principle for good campaign sense was a good trait. Obama himself cloaked his broken promise in the rhetoric of doing the public a great favor, and of course it was mocked on SNL. McCain made hay out of it but his attacks looked cheap and politically expedient at the time, which, of course, they were.

On this issue today, former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, an Obama supporter, writes in The New York Post, “a hypocrite is a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue — who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. And that, it seems to me, is what we are doing now.”

For this last week, Sen. Obama will be rolling in dough. His commercials, his get-out-the-vote effort will, as the pundits have said, dwarf the McCain campaign’s final push. But in fairness, you have to admit, he is getting there in part on a broken promise.

So, Campbell ends well and my first reaction and question is why isn’t this bigger news. The second and more important reaction/question is why should it be, now? The fact of the matter is. It shouldn’t. Not because of the bailout but because quite frankly the past is the past. Nothing can be done now about fund-raising, promises, or anything else. The people who support Obama are going to continue doing so and for issues bigger than how many millions are spent electing him. The people who see his broken promises as character flaws will either stick with that opinion and not vote for him or vote on bigger issues. I don’t think anyone’s forgotten, I just think people who would care, have made up their minds and everyone else has moved on.

~ by Kyle on October 28, 2008.