I'd just as soon presidential candidates were limited to public funding. I'd just as soon Barack Obama could have a fair run with a campaign that was wholly taxpayer financed.
But wait! Isn't that just what he's doing while, in the background, we've been watching John McCain (ironically the leader, at least rhetorically, in campaign finance reform) dick around with funding sources? Given recent history, Obama has probably done the right thing. Now the Republicans are saying, Gee, this is so unfair! We don't have as much money and we've been playing a clean game!
Of course, Republicans haven't been playing a clean game. But they loved the possibility that Obama would run a straight arrow campaign while their 527's raise money to destroy him in a repeat of the past two presidential elections. Now they're stuck with a situation, many analysts are saying, in which Obama is probably the shoo-in winner. Obama has demonstrated his ability to raise millions from millions of people. His financial sources -- and the political power behind them -- are very different from the large donor and corporate resources the Republican Party traditionally depends on and which have had disproportionate, undemocratic influence on the Republican Party.
Jonathan Martin, who writes from the right at Politico, details the current situation. PFA, Bush's money engine, is defunct. Republican 527's just aren't active anymore. At least, not this very minute. He does let us know, however, that there's a movement afoot to revive them and Karl Rove is behind it.
Freedom’s Watch, the one third-party group that many conservatives expected to step into the void left by PFA, has decided to exclusively focus on congressional battles.
Asked if was still the intent of Freedom’s Watch to stay out of the presidential fray, Carl Forti, the group’s director, flatly said: “Yes.”
A spokesman for Sheldon Adelson, the chief financial patron of Freedom’s Watch, declined to comment when asked if the Las Vegas casino mogul would help finance other third-party groups targeting the presidential race.
Multiple Republican sources say that Karl Rove has been in contact with donors such as Adelson and Pickens about helping to create an independent effort but that to date nothing has come of it. Rove didn’t respond to an email.
“There has to be a group and there will be a group,” said a GOP strategist who has been closely involved in past third-party efforts. “But when and where it is formed is yet to be determined. And we’re running out of time, the clock’s ticking.”
For the time being and to the dismay of Republicans, MoveOn rules the 527 world. That doesn't mean the Republicans won't do something dirty in attempt to destroy a candidate they don't like. We can feel a little safer that our money -- yes, it's your money and mine sustaining Obama's efforts -- can buy enough media time to counter Republican smears.
Update: Andrew Sullivan has the bottom line on Obama as politician.
