On the most basic political level, Barack Obama?s decision to turn down the $84 million federal campaign subsidy in favor of raising unlimited money on his own can be answered with one simple question: What would John McCain do if the tables were turned?
Who can doubt, if the prospective Republican presidential nominee had Obama?s small-donor-powered Internet fundraising machine, that he would make the same decision?
McCain?s decision to stay within the federal campaign finance process is making a virtue of necessity, inasmuch as his own fundraising limitations nearly brought his bid for the GOP nomination to a premature end.
Only a bare-bones campaign reorganization and a return to his old retail campaigning style resurrected his effort and delivered him that presumptive nomination. A realistic acceptance of his money prospects for the general election campaign left McCain with no other choice than taking the $84 million.
McCain has already noted that Obama not only has broken his word with him, but more importantly has done so with the American people in backing off his earlier proposal to agree with his GOP counterpart to compete in the fall on equal money terms.
It?s a price Obama is willing to pay, enabling him to campaign in usually Republican states and forcing McCain to commit his limited funds in defense of them.
That?s politics, but Obama pushes the envelope in casting himself as a noble savior of a broken system. Voters taking another look at him may not like what they see.
Jules Witcover, a Baltimore Examiner columnist, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. He has covered national affairs from Washington for more than 50 years and is the author of 11 books, and co-author of five others, on American politics and history.
