Quick Hit for Friday

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  It is kind of ironic how things worked out in this election.  Senator John McCain became the pariah of his own party and an herald hero in the Democratic party by crossing the political aisle and pursuing campaign finance reform.  The vast amounts of money in politics, and particularly who was donating it, has historically been more of a concern to Democrats who worry about a politician being able to buy an election.  Republicans had been more concerned with the limits placed on what they viewed as free speech when giving money to your candidate of choice was limited by the government.  Democrats wanted to create a system that was more 'fair' by getting money out of politics, while Republicans saw it as a violation of Free Speech rights. 

  The most recent action to reform was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or more commonly known as "McCain-Feingold" after its sponsors Senator McCain (R) and Senator Feingold (D).  Senator McCain's support for this Act, and campaign restrictions in general placed, him outside of the mainstream in his own party.  Oddly, it made him very popular with the media and the Democrats, with people like Senator Biden saying that McCain is the one Republican he'd vote into the Oval Office.

  Back in the primaries, both candidates signed documents accepting public financing for their campaigns.  What that effectively does is cap the amount of money they will accept from donors and accept public money for their campaign instead(for commercials, etc).  Senator Obama said he would accept Public Financing if his Republican counterpart did.  Senator Obama made that promise when he was still an obscure politician trailing in the polls, hoping that his promise might gain him some attention and political traction.  After he secured the Democratic nomination for president and realized the massive amounts of cash his campaign was capable of raising, he went back on his promise and did not accept the public money even though John McCain did.

  The irony is this: here we have a situation in which the Democrats, historically being in favor of public financing and complaining about how unfair it is when one party is able to raise more money than the other, have opted out of public financing.  On the other side, you have the sole Republican who was in favor of Public Financing accepting it, and even sticking to his word while his opponent did not.  The Republican, McCain, is now ironically stuck in a situation of his own making.  Senator Obama did break his word, but has managed to dodge any journalistic scrutiny for it.  Additionally, he has raised enough money to drown McCain in advertising, running an average of four ads to every one McCain ad.  In a society so attached to the media, how will such unbalanced media attention affect a general election?  If it is actually possible to buy the presidency, it would appear now would be the best opportunity.

  To add to the irony, I suggest the following: Senator McCain should suggest that in the spirit of Senator Obama's desire to 'spread the wealth', he should donate 1/2 of his campaign's money to the McCain campaign.  Since Obama has decried how 'unfair' it is that some have more money than others, it would seem entirely appropriate for him to accept McCain's offer.