Friday, June 20, 2008

Turn About Is A Bitch

So John McCain is crying foul because Obama broke a campaign pledge about public financing. Boo-fucking-hoo. Republican candidates have always had an overwhelming advantage in 527 muscle. So in the past, what did they care if they spent exactly the same as Joe Democrat on the general election? They knew that they'd be able to deploy their forces of darkness to outspend their opponents, with the added bonus of avoiding responsibility for the vitriolic, misleading ads run by these political entities. A win-win for them.

Now that there is a democratic candidate who has figured out how to inspire a great number of people, and marshal relatively modest resources to raise enormous sums of money, Republicans have their undies in a wudge. Let's recall that opting out of public financing is a perfectly valid, by-the-rules thing to do. The fact that Obama did it shows me that he's gonna take the gloves off and really fight to win. That's encouraging. And while Obama isn't perfect, and he isn't some savior, he is running a very publicly-financed campaign, to my way of thinking: thousands of small donors are bankrolling his run for president.

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