McBush Mad Money vs. Obama’s Green-Baracks

(You have no idea how hard I tried to avoid that pun, but I caved; I’ll chastise myself later.)

I attempted to find the online link to this “Check Point” story by New York Times reporter Michael Luo, but I could not track it down; he writes about how Barack Obama supposedly reneged on his promise to run a publically financed campaign against John W. McBush (apparently, that came up last night)…

Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of failing to keep his word on public financing. Mr. Obama did indeed back away from an earlier pledge to accept public money for the general election if his opponent did as well.

In early 2007, before he became a money-raising phenomenon, Mr. Obama floated in a filing with the Federal Election Commission the possibility of working out an agreement with the other party’s nominee to accept public financing if both sides agreed.

Later, when asked in a questionnaire whether he would participate in the system if his opponent did the same, Mr. Obama wrote, “yes,” adding, “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Mr. Obama also said this year that he would discuss parameters of a deal with the McCain campaign on public financing, but Mr. McCain’s aides say there were never any real negotiations.

As Mark Schmitt of The American Prospect tells us, the quote in the last paragraph is entirely correct. However, the following must be noted about McBush and public campaign financing…

"McCain's victories in the early primaries meant he never had to enter the public financing system," the (Washington) Post says. But this isn't quite right. At the time of the loan (November), McCain was in the public financing system (the certification to receive funds remained among the campaign's assets until Feb. 6, according to the Post). The question of reapplying in the future would have been irrelevant in December.

The Post suggests that "McCain may have inadvertently committed himself to entering the public financing system for the remainder of the primary season," which was my original argument, but it's pretty clear that his attitude toward the Federal Election Commission on this question (was), "Come and get me!"

Which is why DNC chairman Howard Dean did just that last April…

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party officials want a federal judge to order an investigation into whether Sen. John McCain violated election laws by withdrawing from public financing, saying federal regulators are too weak to act on their own.

A lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, to be filed Monday in U.S. District Court, questions the agency's ability to enforce the law and review McCain's decision to opt out of the system. The Republican presidential candidate, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary campaign, decided earlier this year to give up that money so he could avoid strict spending limits between now and the GOP's national convention in September.

I do not know the status of the case, since I cannot find more up-to-date information.

And it would have been nice if Luo had checked for the response of the Obama campaign when the McBush forces had their hissy fit over this last June; if he had, he would have found this statement from Obama spokesman Bill Burton…

In the past couple of weeks, our campaign counsels met and it was immediately clear that McCain's campaign had no interest in the possibility of an agreement. When asked about the RNC's months of raising and spending for the general election, McCain's campaign could only offer its expectation that the Obama campaign would probably, sooner or later, catch up. And shortly thereafter, Senator McCain signaled to the 527s that they were free to run wild, without objection.

And this led to the exodus of McBush campaign aide Craig Shirley, as noted here.

Yes, I would rather have seen the Obama campaign accept public financing instead, but why do that unilaterally? Besides, in a manner of speaking (as a TPM commenter noted), aren’t they actually doing that anyway?