Should Obama have taken public financing?

[JMS]

Am I missing something but didn't he use puplic funding for that 30 minute infomercial???

honestly I lost a little respect for him for that, to me it sounded like a salesman, and something he did not need to do

No Obama did not apply for public matching funds. If he had he would have been limited to roughly 70 million dollars for the campaign. As it is Obama raised some 150 million just last September.

No public funds went to pay for Obama's infomercial.

[JMS]

I wondered when someone was going to point out how wrong JMS was about this whole deal. McCain got a loan during the primaries to keep his campaign afloat, but whether or not he used the promise of federal financing as collateral is debatable.

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_john_mccain_borrow_money_using_public.html

According to the bank which gave McCain the loan.. McCain's campaign treasurer refferenced the public funds as callateral for the loan. However their has been a formal investigation of this when McCain opted out of the public financing, and it was a unanomous decision that McCain didn't formally list the FEC matching funds as collateral on the loan application. So he was granted the Gephart exception and alloud do opt out of public financing for his campaign six months after he signed the binding contract opting in....

His campaign did well enough in the primaries that he didn't need federal funds and so he withdrew from federal funding in the primaries. The FEC agreed that he could exit the public financing system, for the PRIMARY elections:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/fec-frees-mccain-from-primary.html

Truthfully McCain broke his contractual agreement with the FEC. He signed up for public financing which required him to restrict his spending. He overspent and when he was called on it, he opted out of the public financing.

I couldn't find a more recognizable source on this, I don't know why that is.

But the facts are McCain still broke his word, and his writen binding contractual agreement with the FEC... Which is worse than what Obama did. Obama merely said he would negotiate with McCain about whether to accept public financing, and then renegged. McCain flat out said he would accept public financing, then signed an agreement with the FEC, then violated that agreement by overspending in the primaries, then unilaterally withdrew from the FEC agreement, and finally was called before a formal FEC review to get a ruling as to whether he could escape his signed agreement...

Anyway, McCain's general election campaign has been run on federal funds.

http://www.fec.gov/press/press2008/20080908cert.shtml

Which is besides the point...

Also, JMS, do you have a source on who has or has not used public financing in presidential elections? You've made several claims, I'd like to see your sources. Everything I've seen matches this:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95902015

From your Source..

Obama is the first major-party presidential candidate to reject public financing for the fall campaign since the system was enacted in 1974,

NPR is a good source too...

Here are my sources..

Movement away from accepting public funding

Candidates have increasingly moved away from accepting public funds, as they can raise more money throughout the primary, nomination, and general election processes through strictly private contributions.[22]

In 2000, George W. Bush became the first major party candidate to decline public funds for the primary process, and in 2004 Bush, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.) did not accept public funds during the primaries.[23]

In January, 2007, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) declared that she would become the first candidate since the public financing program's inception in 1976 to forgo public funds during both the primary and general election processes, citing spending limitations as a rationale.[24]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_financing_of_elections_(U.S.)

Mr. McAuliffe's (then head of the DNC advising Kerry and Dean to opt out of public financing) comments underscore concerns among Democratic officials that their nominee could emerge next spring drained of money after a nine-candidate primary season and nearing the spending caps required of candidates who accept public financing. Their fear is that the nominee would then be battered all summer by Mr. Bush -- who has no opposition and, because he is not accepting public money, is raising what is expected to be a huge war chest -- until the general election, when the nominees receive fresh financing.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2D8123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63

Both Kerry and Dean did opt out of public financing for the primaries in the 2004 election.

[JMS]

Ross Perot wasn't in to opt out. There's the 10% of the vote by your party the election before thing.

A question I'd like to know. Pat Buchannon who took over the independant party from Ross Perot got matching funds due to how well Perot did in the general election in the previous cycle... I wonder where Pat's matching funds went. I never saw any commercial or anything else for Buchannon that year. I always wondered if Pat figured out a way to pocket some of that money... Remember his sister Babe was his campagne manager that year.

[PeterMP]

According to the bank which gave McCain the loan.. McCain's campaign treasurer refferenced the public funds as callateral for the loan. However their has been a formal investigation of this when McCain opted out of the public financing, and it was a unanomous decision that McCain didn't formally list the FEC matching funds as collateral on the loan application. So he was granted the Gephart exception and alloud do opt out of public financing for his campaign six months after he signed the binding contract opting in...

Truthfully McCain broke his contractual agreement with the FEC. He signed up for public financing which required him to restrict his spending. He overspent and when he was called on it, he opted out of the public financing.

NOT how it happened. He said, 'I want out based on the contract (the Gephart exception).' The FEC chaiman said you can't get out because of the loan situation (which was a unique situation) and we can't vote on it because we don't have enough member, and then when he went over the FEC chairman stated that he had violated the agreement.

Everybody knew this was coming well before he went over the spending limits. The FEC ended up siding w/ McCain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-7742826,00.html?gusrc=gpd

But the facts are McCain still broke his word, and his writen binding contractual agreement with the FEC

Where did he say he would take public financing for the primaries?

The agreement w/ the FEC for public financing has known outs (e.g. the Gephart exception). Executing those outs is not a violation of the agreement with the FEC.

Both Kerry and Dean did opt out of public financing for the primaries in the 2004 election.

Do you not understand the difference between the primiaries and the FALL election?

Obama is the first eligible candidate to opt out for the FALL (i.e. general) election. The first person to opt out period was in fact Steve Forbes back in 1996.

[Corcaigh]

Obama not spending $85 million from the public purse.

Damn Socialist.

[Switchgear]

According to the bank which gave McCain the loan.. McCain's campaign treasurer refferenced the public funds as callateral for the loan. However their has been a formal investigation of this when McCain opted out of the public financing, and it was a unanomous decision that McCain didn't formally list the FEC matching funds as collateral on the loan application. So he was granted the Gephart exception and alloud do opt out of public financing for his campaign six months after he signed the binding contract opting in....

Truthfully McCain broke his contractual agreement with the FEC. He signed up for public financing which required him to restrict his spending. He overspent and when he was called on it, he opted out of the public financing.

So McCain broke a contract via the FEC releasing him from the contract? Color me confused. You do realize breaking a contract and being released from a contract are two very different things, right? You should be more careful about the language you use.

But the facts are McCain still broke his word, and his writen binding contractual agreement with the FEC... Which is worse than what Obama did. Obama merely said he would negotiate with McCain about whether to accept public financing, and then renegged. McCain flat out said he would accept public financing, then signed an agreement with the FEC, then violated that agreement by overspending in the primaries, then unilaterally withdrew from the FEC agreement, and finally was called before a formal FEC review to get a ruling as to whether he could escape his signed agreement...

That's a pretty generous view of what Obama did, but I expect no less.

Can you show me where McCain promised to use public financing for the primaries? Anywhere he extolled its virtues before opting out? If so, I'll agree he was just as hypocritical as Obama, but from what I've seen Obama is the one that talked about how wonderful public financing is then said no thanks when it was no longer in his interest. I had high hopes for Obama, I think he can be a good president assuming he's elected, but it bothers me greatly that he went back on his word so easily. I guess you have no such qualms.

[Switchgear]

Obama not spending $85 million from the public purse.

Damn Socialist.

Yes, this election has caused quite the flip flop. Up until now it was the D's that wanted clean, publicly financed elections and the R's that wanted to keep the money advantage. Now that the tables have turned, so the moral outrage/money grubbing paradigm has shifted. I wonder what other shifts are in store.