The 411: Obama’s Pledge On Public Financing

I really can’t believe I’m doing this. However in response to this bit of commentary by CNN anchor Campbell Brown and my post on why I think it isn’t terribly important this late in the game, I’ve seen comments doubting the pledge or assuming it comes from some secret agreement made between McCain and Obama.

Well here. First of all you should read the whole op-ed by Democrat and former Senator from Nebraska, Bob Kerrey on the issue of campaign finance. He echoed basically what Noah wrote earlier. I gotta say, I respect his frankness. Note: Bob Kerrey is not Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry – a mistake reflected in some comments on the NYP piece. Here’s a brief excerpt:

ON the question of public funding of presidential campaigns, we Democrats who strongly support Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy and who previously supported limits on campaign spending and who haven’t objected to Obama’s opting out of the presidential funding system face an awkward fact: Either we are hypocrites, or we were wrong to support such limitations in the first place.

The next time we speak of the virtue of level playing fields or state our strong belief that democracy can’t survive in the modern age unless big money is taken out of campaigns, we’ll be counting on our audience’s forgetting our silence this year, when the free market was flowing in our direction.

Second, the Washington Post delved into the subject way back when it merited our time and discovered that Senator Obama’s position on accepting public financing went from equivocally supportive to fairly certain to against.

After the FEC issued its ruling, the rhetoric became less equivocal. On March 1, Burton challenged Republican candidates to follow McCain and agree to public financing. He said that Obama, if nominated, would “aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Many newspapers, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, interpreted this Burton statement as a commitment to accept public financing in the event of an Obama-McCain race. As far as I can tell, the Obama campaign made no effort to dispel this impression. His enthusiasm for public financing was a way of distinguishing himself from his rival Hillary Clinton, who was raising much more private money at the time.

The campaign went even further in answers to a questionnaire sent to the various political campaigns in September 2007 by the Midwest Democracy Network. The questionnaire posed a very simple question to the candidates: “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”

You can read Obama’s response here. The candidate highlighted the simple answer “Yes” and elaborated as follows:

In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

When I asked Burton about this yesterday, he said that Obama would address the issue of public financing when he becomes the Democratic nominee and that it is premature to decide the matter now.

As for the Pinocchio Test: 2

The Obama campaign has said different things at different times on the issue of public financing. While there may have been a little wriggle room in some campaign statements, Obama’s affirmative answer to the Midwest Democracy Network seems unequivocal. Now that Obama is raising $1 million a day, his enthusiasm for public financing appears to have waned.

The contrast between the actions of the campaign and Senator Obama’s statement announcing his opting out of public finance is stark. You can argue that he didn’t say the words I promise but you can’t say his campaign has been committed to “preserve the strength of the public financing system,” nor has it “aggressively” pursued that possibility in he past 12 months. To those that love technicalities, he didn’t mark other on the questionnaire, he marked Yes.

Now that we have the facts, can we stop with all the half-baked apologies? I’m really tired of Obama supporters treating his foibles the way Republicans treat global warming. There are facts and reasonable conclusions based upon them. We can argue over the significance of the problem and especially how to fix it but arguing that it exists in the first place? Well good grief.

~ by Kyle on October 28, 2008.