Obama passes on public money
CAMPAIGN FINANCING | McCain could face $200M disadvantage
WASHINGTON -- During a Feb. 27 debate, Sen. Barack Obama was asked about a pledge he made -- with some escape clauses -- to accept public campaign financing. Obama replied, "at the point where I'm the nominee, at the point where it's appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody."
But that never happened.
(AP)
On Thursday, the presumptive Democratic nominee, despite what he said at the debate, other venues and in a questionnaire about aggressively trying to pursue a deal with McCain, announced that he would not take $84.1 million in taxpayer money.
McCain campaign general counsel Trevor Potter said McCain and Obama never had that sitdown. Obama's general counsel for his campaign, Robert Bauer, said he talked to Potter -- once -- and came away with the impression he had nothing to offer.
Potter said the Obama team "did not ever ask for negotiations with the McCain campaign."
The decision comes after Obama raised an eye-popping $272 million as of April 30 and is confident that his proven ability to raise multimillions of dollars in private money will outweigh the damage to his "brand" as a political figure who is different.
The Obama team is also certain that McCain -- who like Obama portrays himself as a man running against the Washington system -- but who was a central figure in the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law -- has enough lapses himself to tarnish his image.
Once Obama's decision was out, McCain said he would take the public money, which means his spending is capped at $84.1 million between his Sept. 1-4 nominating convention and November. Some estimates peg Obama with a potential minimum $200 million advantage over McCain.
Meanwhile in Chicago, Obama's elite high-end fund-raisers, his National Finance Committee, met Thursday for strategy sessions.
Obama has developed an army of micro-donors during his campaign. But however liberating from special interests it is having millions of donors, it is not the same as taking public financing.
Obama -- the first presidential candidate to opt out since the 1976 election -- said in his video, "It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."
However, Obama knew the system was broken and gamed -- by Democrats and Republicans -- all along.
Said McCain: "This election is about a lot of things, but it is also about trust."