McCain Must Give Up Public Funding
Published June 19, 2008
In an effort to maximize his fundraising potential Barack Obama has announced that he will finance his campaign entirely with private contributions. While his campaign presented this as a populist move based on his large number of small contributions from individual donors, it was no coincidence that he made the statement while sitting at a roundtable with leaders of Democratic PACs and the president of the AFL-CIO. Despite Obama's considerable success in raising funds from individuals, it is these money-generating powerhouses which will ultimately bring in the bulk of the millions needed to run his campaign, money taken involuntarily from union workers — many of whom no longer even vote with the Democrats — and consolidated by extreme leftist organizations and wealthy individuals like George Soros working through faceless front groups.
John McCain has a history of believing in an egalitarian approach to political campaigns. He has a laudable yet naive faith in a level playing field and campaigns where ideas speak louder than money. To some degree McCain has staked his reputation as a populist reformer on these ideas, and it is about time for him to admit that he has been misguided. We've gone for eight years with a president whose effectiveness has been weakened by his chronic inability to own up to his mistakes. It's time for McCain to show how different he is and acknowledge the fact that his attempts to level the political playing field, while well intentioned, have been a mistake. A good start would be to admit that his McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill has not worked and did not produce the intended results. The most effective way to show that he understands his past mistakes is to abandon the futile pretense of a federally funded campaign and do as Obama has done and run his campaign on private financing.
Right now, McCain is getting some mileage out of accusations that Obama agreed to a deal where both candidates would use public financing and has now reneged on it, but the short-term benefits of that argument are not going to last. McCain may be concerned that he cannot out-fundraise Obama, but even so he can certainly do better than the $84 million limit on public funding. McCain has vacillated on this issue throughout the election, but now it's time to throw caution to the winds, declare that the gloves are off and go for all the money he can get from every source that will give it to him. He can now safely reject public funds, and blame the need to do so on Obama's perfidious actions.
McCain is a Republican; he should take advantage of the traditional strengths of the Republican Party. One of those is the ability to raise a great deal of money from business interests. Yes, that makes him look like he's working for the lobbyists and the corporate fat-cats, but contrary to the anti-corporate drumbeat of the left and in the media, Republicans and most independents understand that the political activities of the companies which employ them ultimately benefit them as employees, and that those companies and their lobbyists are often a more effective voice for their interests in Washington than any elected representative. McCain should embrace, and even celebrate corporate funding and turn it into a positive, rather than a negative.
Dave Nalle has been a magazine editor, freelance writer, capitol hill staffer, game designer and taught college history for many years. He is Vice Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, working to promote liberty in the GOP. He designs fonts for a living and lives with his family just outside Austin. You can find his writings on politics and culture at Republic of Dave, on conspiracy theories at IdiotWars and on design and fonts at The Scriptorium.
- McCain Must Give Up Public Funding
- Published: June 19, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Politics: Elections and Candidates, Politics: Policy, Politics: U.S.
- Writer: Dave Nalle
- Dave Nalle's BC Writer page
- Dave Nalle's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Well, Orby, it may seem arrogant, but the way I see it we each as citizens have a right even an obligation to advise our potential leaders.
Dave
I agree. Obama is basically on his way to 'buying' this election.
McCain has to raise enough funds to stay in the game and $84M won't be enough by any means.
Obama raised $280 million just in the primary. This may be the first election where the total spending of all candidates by the end tops a billion dollars.
The problem for McCain is that the only way a GOP candidate can raise that much money is with corporate and lobby contributions, so he needs to find a way to spin those groups as patriotic and representative of the people - which I think he can sell to the Republicans and Independents who would support him. He needs to go big as the pro-business, pro-economy candidate.
He needs to put a big name economist or businessman on his team immediately. If he were alive I'd say put Milton Friedman on the team. Sadly, no one still alive has the same name recognition as Friedman. The only economist I can think of with enough name recognition is Francis Fukuyama, and he's just too controversial. Despite turning against the neocons, he's still an anti-sovereignty globalist and that would just kill McCain with a lot of people.
The only alternative would be to go with a business oriented celebrity. McCain ought to be joined to Arnold Schwarzenegger at the hip from now until November.
Dave
"One way to do that is to proudly admit that he is a Republican..."
Dave, you said a mouthful in that one line.
Dave,
McCain would inevitably look like the "before" bloodless and helpless weakling victim to Arnold's "after" muscleman champion. It couldn't help him at all to cozy up to someone who emphasizes his great-grandfatherly appearance.
As to campaign funds, Obama has one-upped McCain. If McCain goes for private money, he is announcing that when it comes right down to it, his strongest principles are tissue and his ideals are built on sand.
He can't get by with saying, "he did it first, so I'm going to do it too." That only makes Obama look tough and decisive and McCain seem wishy-washy and lacking confidence. A presidential campaign isn't the best time to announce,"I screwed up with my signature legislation, campaign finance reform."
"If he were alive..."(#4) is a beautiful, crazy line. If we could put dead people in office, I've got a bunch of great names to suggest.
Obama is too far to the left, but McCain isn't independent enough to counter that with voters who aren't staunch Republicans.
You've got a point on the physical disparity between McCain and Arnold S.
As for the appearance of waffling if he goes for private funds now, he can address that just by assuming his peevish old dude personna - he does it pretty well.
Dave
...corporate and lobby contributions...he needs to find a way to spin those groups as patriotic and representative of the people
bwahahaha!!!
"Private funds from individuals? Th, that's not financing we can believe in!"
Really though, I am not sure I understand the difference in strategy. He has so many lobbyists working for him and raising money for him now, it seems it is his strategy. I'm missing the part where he would add this as a new strategy. What's the difference 134? 192? 257?.
McCain Has Had At Least 134 Lobbyists Running His Campaign & Raising Money For Him
...corporate and lobby contributions...he needs to find a way to spin those groups as patriotic and representative of the people
bwahahaha!!!
Really though, I am not sure I understand the difference in strategy. He has so many lobbyists working for him and raising money for him now, it seems it is his strategy. I'm missing the part where he would add this as a new strategy. What's the difference 134? 192? 257?.
McCain Has Had At Least 134 Lobbyists Running His Campaign & Raising Money For Him
I say McCain should stick with public financing. Besides the fact that he would be flip flopping on his signature issue, he'll get more mileage out of attacking Barack as the money candidate trying to buy the election, and most especially Obama's utter hypocrisy on the issue. Showing up the messianic candidate for the lying political hack that he is would do him more good with ME at least than the money.
Plus, there are still the 527s that will likely be doing the dirty work anyway, without McCain having to get his hands dirty talking about Rezko, Rev Wright and the Weather Underground.
I'm not a bit of a fan of Gov Schwarzenegger at this point, but you're wrong about him making McCain look puny. That might be the case if no one knew them, but absolutely everybody on Earth knows that Arnold is a pumped up gym bunny who plays a tough guy in the movies - while of course John McCain is the real deal, a real fearless tough guy.
Cindy, right now he has yet to officially declare that he's going to be relying on private money. The lobbyists involved at this point are there for their political expertise, not as a source of funds.
The line between lobbyist and political adviser is very narrow. It's easy to call these guys 'lobbyists' because they have served in that role, but in fact they are also former government appointees, legislators and experts in various fields. Calling them lobbyists is a cheap way to strike at McCain, but it really misrepresents their role in the campaign.
Technically Bill Clinton is now a lobbyist. Did Hillary get criticism for being married to him on that basis?
Dave
Is this satire?
McCain only supported Campaign Finance "Reform" in 2000 because it covered his ass from the Keating Five scandal, and it made the media love him (at least, for an evil Republican).
Eight years later, the media doesn't love him anymore because they found someone else further to the left (and black! and a Democrat!) to fall in love with.
So now he's screwed. The conservative base rightly distrusts him, the media has thrown him under the bus in favor of something new, and he can't even raise any money.
He's fucked. Karma wins again.
Hud, if he's fucked, then we're all fucked, because the alternative is Obama.
Dave
Never thought I'd see the day when conservatives would be crying foul! over a liberal eschewing public funding...
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/78172)
It's arrogant to lecture McCain on this matter. Why McCain helped frame the Campaign Finance Law, which I might add is working so well.
The real dilemma for Republicans is, should we support Bevis, Butthead or Barr.