Making Obama pay for opting-out
Obama’s decision to opt-out of public financing draws a devastating AP article and a brilliant David Brooks column. Here’s the start of the AP story which will have been picked up by huge numbers of papers across the Union:
Brooks takes the opportunity to point out the split in Obama’s political personality:Barack Obama chose winning over his word.
If Obama’s decision to opt-out is just a story for a couple of days, then it will have been worth it for him as the cash advantage really is going to tell coming down the straight. So, McCain needs to use it to put into voters’ minds the idea of Obama as a say anything, do anything politician and really drive this message.Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.
A measure of whether the McCain campaign has succeeded will be whether Obama’s decision is still being mentioned in news stories this time next week. If it is not, then Obama has gained a huge advantage without taking too big a hit.
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Ganpat Ram
June 20th, 2008 7:05pmThe most recent Gallup poll shows McCain neck-and-neck with Obama. The race is tightening: Obama is getting less, not more, popular as the public gets to know his slimy ways.
Interesting.
Despite all the mountains of sugary goo by the crazed media about the wonders of Obama the God....
Maybe McCain has a good chance after all.
Maybe I gave up too soon ! Not a good trait for a supporter of the never-say-die Clinton.
Maybe McCain's "Drill-for-Oil-and-Environmental-Fascists-Be-Damned" line has hit it with the US public?
McCain, unlike poor Dole, is a flamingly interesting character, it seems.
Hal
June 20th, 2008 9:37pmYes, Obama is ambitious. So was FDR. So was Lincoln. And yes, he's lived in Chicago a long time. At least he didn't move there after dumping his first wife and marrying a beer heiress.
The rules on campaign finance were written before it transpired that a candidate could raise large sums online from small donations. The intent was to curb the influence of big donors, but it may be that the internet is doing that better than the law is.
By the way, which McCain is supposed to accuse Obama of inconsistency -- the GOP maverick of 2000, the McCain who considered becoming John Kerry's running mate in 2004, or the McCain of the last two years who endorses all of Bush's policies?
I think Obama will be fine here.
Hal
June 21st, 2008 3:31amMr. Forsyth,
You might write about Obama endorsing the FISA compromise in Congress this week. If I undestand it, this deal effectively protects the Bush Administration from any revelations about how its domestic eavesdropping of the web and of phone traffic has operated.
It's the most disappointing thing that Obama has done so far, a good deal more troubling than opting out of federal campaign financing. Obama knows better, but has made a political calculation with FISA.
nigel
June 21st, 2008 6:13pmYou might also write about McCain continuing to break campaign finance law during the primary period.
Sure, it's an issue, but unlikely to get much traction.
You might also consider that Obama's doing his bit to reduce the federal deficit. :-)
Helen
June 27th, 2008 4:45amBrooks is so damn concerned about Obama's opting out of the system, but fails to call McCain flip/flops on the same issue. Not moved by any of this 'nonsense.' What Charlie Black said about how helful another 'terrorist attack' would be to secure McCain a victory, is more 'ugly' and certainly of more concern to me.
Obama's way of fundraising is quite 'public'; let tax payer's dollars be used in a more meanginful way, please!
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