Robert A. George: "Two 'Perfect' General Election Opponents"

The moderate-conservative Republican journalist and blogger discusses campaign finance, hypocrisy, and the U.S. presidential election: "Talk about two candidates that deserve each other: The holier-than-thou Frick and Frack of 'reform' -- Barack Obama and John McCain. Obama, this morning, announced -- to the surprise of no one -- that he would opt out of the public campaign finance system -- the first general election candidate to do so since the post-Watergate laws were written: 'It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections,' Obama wrote. 'But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system.' 'Not an easy decision'? Please. Anybody who has been paying attention should hardly find this surprising. The man has been averaging about $30 million [a month] just this calendar year with a fundraising machine for the ages. He's drawn this from a record 1.5 million donors -- most of whom are giving in small donations, thus allowing him to go back to that well over and over again. No one should begrudge that Obama has completely rewritten the rules of what is possible. That said...Obama, who is all about integrity and 'change you can believe in' made a promise months ago that he would abide by the public financing rules for the general election. Except, of course, when it is too difficult to say no to the more than $250 million (conservatively estimating) that he can raise himself."

Mr. George continues his commentary: "Of course, this would be a perfect 'gotcha' for Mr. Campaign Finance Reform himself, John McCain. Except for two things. 1) His campaign finance rules helped create the situation in which we are in now. He first pioneered Internet fundraising in 2000. Then got his campaign finance law passed in 2002, pushing so-called soft money out of the system -- and strengthening the hand of candidates who could raise lots of money in small donations (such as on the Internet). Howard Dean took that idea it to another level in 2003 -- and Obama pushed it into another galaxy in the current cycle. McCain's people called foul on Obama: Jill Hazelbaker, the McCain campaign’s communications director, said later on a conference call with reporters: 'The true test of a candidate for President is whether he will stand on principle and keep his word to the American people. Barack Obama has failed that test today, and his reversal of his promise to participate in the public finance system undermines his call for a new type of politics.' She added, 'This decision will have far-reaching and extraordinary consequences that will weaken and undermine the public financing system.' Yeah, right, yada yada yada. It's tough for McCain to go around calling Obama a hypocrite, when he's played fast and loose with FEC campaign finance regs himself:...Of course, McCain has benefited from the FEC's continued lack of a quorum, so he's going on like his opt-in/opt-out do-si-do is fine and dandy. The fact remains, even if the FEC decided to side with McCain, he's certainly violating the 'spirit' of the laws that he himself has been insisting that candidates adhere to. And don't think Obama's people will point out McCain's inconsistency on his pet issue. Their campaign will take the brief hit from the media and various good-government groups and then just roll on raising oodles of money. As the saying goes, it's better to apologize than ask permission. Meanwhile, McCain will, like it or not, be forced to take the passive assistance of various GOP-connected 527 groups -- which McCain hates -- who will raise money separately to run negative ads against Obama, separate from the official McCain effort. As a result, this will create a situation where the two presidential cycles post-McCain-Feingold will each set records in total spending. As I said before, two perfectly suited holier-than-thou candidates going at it."