McCain Campaign Nudges Obama On Public Financing

Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman, e-mailed me a statement about McCain's move toward accepting public financing for the general election. It challenges Barack Obama to do the same.

“Five months ago Barack Obama personally and publicly declared that he would accept public financing if the Republican nominee did as well. As the McCain campaign moves toward the option of public financing, we hope Senator Obama will keep faith with his pledge to the American people.”

My sense is that Obama campaign will probably call on its army of small donors to each contribute $100 to the general election effort, accumulate 1 million donations, and challenge the McCain campaign to explain how that's not public financing.

Comments

Did Obama ever say that he would accept public financing? Or did he just hint at it?

Posted by socctty | April 4, 2008 1:31 PM

Since Obama hasn't mentioned the breadth of his small donor support in response, I'm assuming he's waiting for McCain to ask him about that in a debate. Public financing is a way to stop the influence of lobbyists and fat cats, not the grass roots.

Posted by Helter | April 4, 2008 1:32 PM

I believe Obama made that conditional on some factors that may include 527s and so on. So the real answer to their question lies in their own campaign and not with Obama.

Posted by Kelly M. | April 4, 2008 1:37 PM

Original wording:

"I will aggressively pursue such an agreement if I am my party's nominee."

...

"As USA TODAY has critically observed, outside groups have come to spend tens of millions of dollars "independently," while the candidates they favor with these ads "wink and nod" at this activity."

My assumption is that Obama can point to Freedom's watch, with its $200M budget, and say "now, look, unless Senator McCain proposes that these sort of 527s not spend money on his behalf, as he suggested of the Swift Boat veterans back in 2004 back when the Straight Talk express still had some wheels, then there's no way for us to reach a meaningful agreement. I'm comfortable with the fact that my campaign does not take money from lobbyists, and that I am the first candidate to have more than 50% of his contributions come from people who've given less than $200."

The current # of donors is now about 1.2M. At the current pace he'll hit 2M by July 31, even if there's no pick-up once he wins the nomination. In practice he'll probably get there by the end of June. Which means, Howard Dean was right, he was just 4 years too early.

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | April 4, 2008 1:43 PM

I'd like to see Obama note that McCain's calls for him to select public financing have more to do with McCain's own financial troubles/decisions in the primary than anything else. If McCain can't properly finance a primary campaign how does he expect to run the country?

Posted by Jake | April 4, 2008 1:44 PM

Marc-- why not make this an actual "reported" blog and show us the facts: Obama did not fully commit to public financing. McCain's camp is outright lying. Obama said something would be worked out. There is a huge difference there and in no objective world did Obama say yes to public financing.

If you can go after Obama for his subtle use of McCain's 100 Years remark, then let's do the same to McCain-- his misappropriation of Obama's words here are much more stark.

Go figure.

Posted by Joe Justice | April 4, 2008 1:46 PM

Well, he committed to aggressively pursue such an agreement, but that does not mean that an agreement will be reached.

So he is off the hook.

Lawyerly.

Posted by D | April 4, 2008 1:46 PM

Cute that McCain wants to get Obama trapped in the same financial straitjacket that's waiting for him. Take a look at the March FEC filings to see just how pathetic McCain's financial situation is compared to Obama's: Obama is spending money at five times the rate McCain is, but his campaign still has a net worth of nearly $40 million and is taking in about that much every month. McCain has $8 million cash on hand, but with $4.5 million in debt the net worth of his campaign is only about $3.5 million. At current rates he's going to get outspent 4:1, and that's assuming no consolidation of the cash currently flowing to both D candidates. Hell, at the end of February Ron Paul's campaign was still worth more than McCain's ($5 million vs $3.5 million), though I expect by now McCain has managed to pass that mark at least.

Posted by bbartlog | April 4, 2008 1:56 PM

McCain pull some serious shenanigans by getting a $5 million loan using the promise of opting in for public financing to secure it (but because he hadn't REALLY opted in, it wasn't REALLY collateral). Basically he qualified for public funds, unilaterally withdraw from public funding (which might not even be legal), and told the bank that if his campaign bid failed he promised to jump back into public funding, take the taxpayer's money, and use that to repay the loan. If the campaign did well (which it did), he would not opt in and he'd pay back the loan with donations.

This possibly illegal maneuver (the FEC doesn't have enough members to review and vote ... but that's another story) has been brought to you by the man who brought you campaign finance reform and the "Straight Talk Express". I guess campaign finance reform is only for candidates who don't have really good lawyers to find loopholes and make advantageous interpretations. Is this a man you could "pursue an agreement" with and expect it to be honored? That's a big "NO!"

McCain has obliterated his credibility on public funding, and Obama can use this to bitch slap him all over the place on this issue.

Posted by LFC | April 4, 2008 2:16 PM

Obama has 1.3 million donors.

The average donation last month was $109.

The average donation this month was $96.

If this isn't public financing, then what is?

Hell.to.the.naw.

for Obama to remotely considering public financing.

Posted by rikyrah | April 4, 2008 2:19 PM

I don't think any agreement can be reached between Obama and a guy who has already proven himself to be a criminal violator of campaign finance law.

Posted by Anonymous | April 4, 2008 2:38 PM

I've said this many times before. Obama's "aggressive pursuit" should come in the form of a challenge to debates, as in:

"Both of us wish to see public financing if possible. However, we also want voters to be informed about our views. Therefore, I will agree to public financing if Sen. McCain agrees to one debate a week from the end of the conventions until election day."

(Also, mentioning 527s somehow would be good, but the McCain line when the 527s come out will be that he has no control over them.)

Posted by Seth | April 4, 2008 2:41 PM

"My sense is that Obama campaign will probably call on its army of small donors to each contribute $100 to the general election effort, accumulate 1 million donations, and challenge the McCain campaign to explain how that's not public financing."

Too funny. Happy hour musta started early.

Posted by hadenough | April 4, 2008 3:06 PM

Oh fer cryin' out loud! Obama committed to public financing, just like he committed to working with McCain on ethics reform before he backed out of that pledge, too. You are now going to try and make this pledge contingent on the 527s? The 527s over which McCain has absolutely no control? Nice trick, that! How convenient.

It's clear from public statements that Obama and McCain both wanted a publicly funded general election. At the very least Obama committed to working with McCain on this after he becomes the nominee. Let's see if he even does that ...

"a questionnaire sent to all presidential candidates in the fall of 2007 by the Midwest Democracy Network. ... his answer to the question of whether he would participate in public financing was clear:

“Yes. ... 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. ... John McCain 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.”

And it would appear that McCain just returned excess money from donors ...

Posted by sbj | April 4, 2008 3:28 PM

Obama did pledge to use pubic financing if his opponent (McCain) did the same.

Now Obama is trying to weasel out of his pledge, because of the large amounts of money his has been collecting.

Every time I see Barack Hussein Obama's face , I see a liar.

Posted by James | April 4, 2008 3:46 PM

James,

Did you see OBammBamm's face when he told you to your face that he is a liar?

Posted by D | April 4, 2008 3:59 PM

Every time I see Barack Hussein Obama's face , I see a liar.

That's funny, because every time I read one of your posts, I see an idiot.

Posted by Jake | April 4, 2008 4:02 PM

I'm advising Barack not to take any government money. The government is already broke. We members of the public will dutifully finance him if he gets the nomination. Maccain is leading him to a trap. If he agrees to taking money from the government, he will turn to his 527's to crucify barack. He will be limited in financing and will not be able to respond.We will shoulder the financing,in that vein, we can adequately answer any 527 trick with true public financing power. We will pour in millions of dollars to Barack to blunt their crazy efforts

Posted by siam | April 4, 2008 4:44 PM

I'm advising Barack not to take any government money. The government is already broke. We members of the public will dutifully finance him if he gets the nomination. Maccain is leading him to a trap. If he agrees to taking money from the government, he will turn to his 527's to crucify barack. He will be limited in financing and will not be able to respond.We will shoulder the financing,in that vein, we can adequately answer any 527 trick with true public financing power. We will pour in millions of dollars to Barack to blunt their crazy efforts

Posted by siam | April 4, 2008 4:44 PM

I'm advising Barack not to take any government money. The government is already broke. We members of the public will dutifully finance him if he gets the nomination. Maccain is leading him to a trap. If he agrees to taking money from the government, he will turn to his 527's to crucify barack. He will be limited in financing and will not be able to respond.We will shoulder the financing,in that vein, we can adequately answer any 527 trick with true public financing power. We will pour in millions of dollars to Barack to blunt their crazy efforts

Posted by siam | April 4, 2008 4:46 PM

It's not public financing because not every American has $100 to donate to a politician for a general election, or any other election. Many of these same people would already have given at least that much to Obama's primary campaign, and maybe to the DNC, the DSCC and the DCCC. Not everyone, but clearly many affluent, well-educated, Democrats are giving to Obama. It's not 1,000,000 street people, starving artists and college kids eating canned goods.

It's call public financing, not financing from the top 5% of the public. In a country of nearly 300,000,000 souls, one million is not a representative group.

Posted by Tim K | April 5, 2008 6:42 PM

Tim K, by your standard, public financing isn't even public financing, because not every member of the public pays taxes - and many who do get full refunds from the pot of money that general election funding would come from.

Posted by Starscream | April 5, 2008 10:44 PM