Barack Obama is Choosing Door Number $500 Million
What would you do if you were Barack Obama? Take a measly $80 million dollars of tax payer's money to run your presidential campaign? Or would you throw that away for the chance to rake in what will in all likelihood be hundreds of millions of dollars of money from donations of private supporters of your historic campaign?
Hmmmm… Let me think about this incredibly difficult question…
On Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama announced that he was opting out of the public financing system, in the process forgoing "more than $80 million in public funds" for the more bountiful loot that could await him later.
As a result, Obama will become the first modern presidential candidate to run a race solely on the back of private funds. The move risks sullying his reformist credentials; Obama had promised last year to try to reach a deal with the GOP nominee to accept public financing…
"Today, Barack Obama has revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama," said the Arizona Republican's spokesman Brian Rogers.
Yeah, but the Republicans have to understand that he made that deal waaaaaay before he realized that hundred dollar bills would rain down from the ceiling every time he said the word "Hope."
And I don't understand. Why doesn't John McCain just forgo the public funds in favor of accepting millions upon millions upon millions of fanatically obsessive supporters?
Oh.
Yeah, I can see why he'd be mad.
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Nice coverage of this issue on TDS and CR tonight. Both Jon and Stephen oversimplified the issue of why Obama didn't take the public financing and labelled him a flip flopper on the issue. It's a legitimate debate on why he opted out and if he truly broke his word, but you wouldn't have known that tonight. If I wanted to watch one sided cheap shots on TV I'd watch Fox News. And no, I don't expect hard news or analysis from Comedy Central, but this is the kind of thing Jon and Stephen used to be on watch for and now they do it too. If you want to know what using public financing would do to Obama's ability to respond to slanderous attacks (which we know will happen) from those 527 groups, just ask decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry how that went for him 4 years ago and the "Swiftboat Veterans For Truth".
Savvy in cards, but made a mistake with Johnson. Can't win every time. He does learn from his mistakes, which is a BIG plus to cancel out Johnson.
It's simple. Obama's playing poker. In poker parlance he's "Bulling the table and Switching gears." That's how he beat Clinton and that's how to beat McCain.
For Clinton, Obama "bet out" early and amassed an insurmountable chip lead. Here he's doing a few things. Obama is "Bulling the table" in that he is being aggressive with the money he has. He's also "Making A Stand," or drawing the line on what he knows to be a bogus (and I just saw it) and lame play by McCain on campaign finance. He's also keeping a "poker face" so one can't "tell" if he's being "Clintonian."
By doing this, Senator Obama can take advantage of McCains weaknesses strategically. McCains only move is a crybaby one. Obama bets out at that. Hard. Why? It's a weak move by a guy older than dirt. But, you can't tell that from his "poker face" on the web. Or can you?
Reality is, Obama earned that money, McCain has little, this is the safest bet and best chance of winning.
To learn a bit about his poker habits and how it might be incorporated you can read about it at my ring game but here's a good article from CNN. It's a great write up on how he thinks.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/24/obama.poker.ap/index.html
McCain – The Obamian Candidate? Not.
"Wahhhh! He broke his pledge that's really not a pledge and I've got no money."
Read it and weep old man. CoplopInoptopOnopIAnop wisdom. Use it or lose it.
Time for a change. Obama does not agree with attacks on age.
McCain: please taxpayers, can I have some election funding ?
Obama takes private funding & the Republican seeks election welfare. Mua-ha-ha-ha.
Gore and Kerry tried to be un-Clintonian. We all know how that turn out.
It's like the drinking game "Presidents and Assholes". Before you can change the rules, you have to be winning the game.
Obama – The Clintonian Candidate. Brilliant! To make change one must first act the same.
Brian Rogers and John McCain are the "also rans," and now McCain is forced to put the "touch" on all those billionaires he was supposed to suck up to a few days ago.