Even George Will Rips McCain's Whining about Obama's Fundraising

[RamboLiberal]

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McCain revived a familiar villain -- "huge amounts" of political money -- when Barack Obama announced that he had received contributions of $150 million in September. "The dam is broken," said McCain, whose constitutional carelessness involves wanting to multiply impediments to people who want to participate in politics by contributing to candidates -- people such as the 632,000 first-time givers to Obama in September.

Why is it virtuous to erect a dam of laws to impede the flow of contributions by which citizens exercise their First Amendment right to political expression? "We're now going to see," McCain warned, "huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal." The supposedly inevitable scandal, which supposedly justifies preemptive government restrictions on Americans' freedom to fund the dissemination of political ideas they favor, presumably is that Obama will be pressured to give favors to his September givers. The contributions by the new givers that month averaged $86.

One excellent result of this election cycle is that public financing of presidential campaigns now seems sillier than ever. The public has always disliked it: Voluntary and cost-free participation, using the check-off on the income tax form, peaked at 28.7 percent in 1980 and has sagged to 9.2 percent. The Post, which is melancholy about the system's parlous condition, says there were three reasons for creating public financing: to free candidates from the demands of fundraising, to level the playing field and "to limit the amount of money pouring into presidential campaigns." The first reason is decreasingly persuasive because fundraising is increasingly easy because of new technologies such as the Internet. The second reason is, the Supreme Court says, constitutionally impermissible. Government may not mandate equality of resources among political competitors who earn different levels of voluntary support. As for the third reason -- "huge amounts" (McCain) of money "pouring into" (The Post) presidential politics -- well:

The Center for Responsive Politics calculates that, by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102903199.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Buzz Clik]

1. "... a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips" Exactly!

And look where that has gotten us. The potato chip industry is rampant with corruption and influence peddling. Have we already forgotten the Chip to Nowhere?

[Cha]

2. mccain wanted to opt out of his "public financing" but it was too

late and now he's whining-lying-whining about it.

"Yep, there's more articles, but here is one
Posted by BostonTLover
There's more articles out there, but just quickly browsing, I found this:

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/02/mccai...

In plain English, McCain got the loan by promising a publicly-funded bailout, if anything went wrong. The FEC is not amused.

McCain opted for public financing when his campaign was struggling last summer. Then, when his electoral fortunes rebounded, he told the FEC he wanted out again.

Rick Hansen of the Election Law blog writes, "Meanwhile, as Marc Schmitt has documented (see here, here, and here), McCain, in applying for a campaign loan, apparently promised to remain a candidate and opt back in to the system in the event his campaign faltered again."

McCain didn't get the public money in his pocket, but he borrowed against the promise of public money. In the eyes of the FEC, benefiting from the prospect of public money may be tantamount to taking the cash.

McCain could be in big trouble if the FEC won't release him from the program. Public financing imposes strict spending and fund raising limits. McCain has already burned through about $46 million, betting on his ability to raise still more money from private donors.

What a smarmy sleazeball. The McCain of McCain Feingold can't even make it to through the primary without embroiling himself in shady private financing schemes."