He Broke His Word!!!

I guess the settled media narrative is that Barack Obama is just a weasel and a scoundrel for breaking his word - his WORD! - about public financing (even though that's a clever misinterpretation of his statements), and he's threatening to topple the whole public system by opting out for the general election. A system that gives us corporate PAC loopholes and 527 groups and all kinds of ways to use money outside the boundaries of donating to candidates. THAT system.

Somehow, the fact that John McCain is breaking the law doesn't come up:

I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)

I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.

Every gallon of fuel on the Straight Talk Express, every rental of a venue for a town hall meeting, every donation phone call, every sandwich futher BREAKS THE LAW. And yet this guy is being sanctimonious about his honorable efforts in campaign finance reform?

It's not about money, it's about ACCESS. A $500 million dollar movement fueled by small donors doesn't create an unethical access problem because an individual $100 donor will have no pull with an Obama Administration. A lobbyist-fueled, PAC-fueled "movement" has a legitimate access problem - there are strings attached to their money. It doesn't matter who's "in" the system or who's "out". And anyway the system is insufficient to 21st-century campaigning.

Of course, to the traditional media, the point has nothing to do with campaign finance, which is a process story. It's about "your word" as they define it, and they will use this to set the narrative on Obama. Expect a lot of negative crap from the media for the next week.

UPDATE: As for the good government groups who are not pleased by the decision, they are advised to get over themselves. Outside of Sen. Feingold none of them have expressed much support for a real public financing system, so spare me the teeth-gnashing.