The Week

Why can’t we have friends like Angelo?

Barack Obama decided to opt out of public financing for the general election because he can raise three or four times more cash on his own. In true Obama fashion, he wrapped this self-interested, and entirely rational, decision in saccharine self-righteousness. He did it because nasty conservative 527s are about to come after him; actually, there is very little 527 activity on the right this year. He did it because the system is “broken”; actually, all its flaws were on vivid display back when he was pledging to participate in it and declaring its virtues. He did it because his campaign is fueled by small donations and so is “truly funded by the American people”; but he never noted the virtue of small donations as compared with taxpayer funding before his campaign got inundated with them, and he still takes plenty of big donations-he raised more money in contributions of $1,000 or more than Hillary Clinton did, and the week after announcing his decision he attended a $30,000-a-person Hollywood fundraiser. We hope Obama’s decision will hasten the demise of the antiquated and unnecessary public financing system and take some of the shine off his halo among the elite media. More likely, neither will happen, while he spends a couple hundred million more dollars in the fall than John McCain.

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Presidential Election

Why can’t we have friends like Angelo?

Barack Obama decided to opt out of public financing for the general election because he can raise three or four times more cash on his own. In true Obama fashion, he wrapped this self-interested, and entirely rational, decision in saccharine self-righteousness. He did it because nasty conservative 527s are about to come after him; actually, there is very little 527 activity on the right this year. He did it because the system is “broken”; actually, all its flaws were on vivid display back when he was pledging to participate in it and declaring its virtues. He did it because his campaign is fueled by small donations and so is “truly funded by the American people”; but he never noted the virtue of small donations as compared with taxpayer funding before his campaign got inundated with them, and he still takes plenty of big donations-he raised more money in contributions of $1,000 or more than Hillary Clinton did, and the week after announcing his decision he attended a $30,000-a-person Hollywood fundraiser. We hope Obama’s decision will hasten the demise of the antiquated and unnecessary public financing system and take some of the shine off his halo among the elite media. More likely, neither will happen, while he spends a couple hundred million more dollars in the fall than John McCain.