Things I The American People Don’t Care About
Posted on June 19, 2008 by andrew
Yes, obsessive watchers of politics (myself included) care about Obama’s decision to opt out of public financing, but I’m 99% certain that the following statements are true of 99% of the people who will vote in November:
- They don’t really know how the public financing system works.
- They don’t particularly care how it works because they know it impacts their lives in no discernible way whatsoever.
My point being: If John McCain wants to turn Barack Obama’s decision on public financing into a campaign issue, I say good luck. I can guarantee with absolute confidence that no one will ever find a single voter who pledges their support to McCain in this presidential election based solely on Obama’s rejection of public funds.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, John McCain, campaign finance
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3 Responses to “Things I The American People Don’t Care About”
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uh… Didn’t McCain opt out of this earlier this year?
Sorta. He opted out for the primaries but not for the general.
If my memory is correct, that’s pretty standard for recent presidential campaigns: Primary funds can be used up until the conventions, so the public funding for the general only needs to get the campaign through the last 2-3 months of the election. I believe that both Kerry and Bush did the same thing in 2004.
Of course, there is another controversy over what, precisely, McCain did for the primaries. When his campaign didn’t look like it could raise the money to keep going, it secured loans using the promise of public primary funds to cover those loans. The campaign then started winning again, McCain got more money from private donations, and the campaign opted back out of public financing (which would be a big indication that Obama was probably right when he called the current system “broken” today).
But the short answer to your question is: No, John McCain did not opt out of the public system for the general election.
the FEC will be investigating if McCain’s campaign acted illegally by using public funding as collateral for a loan and then potentially opting out of said public funding. Either you’re in or you’re out, they may say. I doubt they will do much of anything though.