Yes, no one was surprised that Senator Obama passed on public funding of his campaign, and the spending limits that come with it. Yes, it will probably not be a big issue in this campaign. Yes, most would argue that it was the shrewd thing to do in this election, where Obama is pulling in so many donations.

So what is the downside? Well, it is now open-season to by-pass public funding of presidential elections. It may not seem like a big deal now, but in future elections there will be little moral high ground to complain when huge torrents of special interest funding are poured into Republican campaigns, because they will simply say "You started it".

The ramifications of this decision will not be felt this year, but in future elections (2012, 2016) the gloves will be off.

The only reason that the 85 million has been held to in the past is that raising more than that in 2 months seemed unlikely... and the big donors were capped at 2300 anyway. But the 85 million is fixed, and our money is not.

In 2000 85 million dollars would have bought ~4 million barrels of oil...

In 2012 it won't buy 400,000 barrels... Wages are going to have to skyrocket, inflation is going to be out-of-control (for at least 2-3 years)...

In 2012 the candidates are all likely to be getting ~80 million a month. No-one would have stuck with that artificial ceiling.

If Obama was stupid enough to hold to it, it would have changed NOTHING in future elections.

TJ --

With 527s in play, there has been no check on election funding. There has also been no client control of it. The result has been horrible and deceptive ads on both sides -- by the 527s -- out of client control or approval. The Bush campaign, while winking and nodding at the swiftboat ads because they were so base and deceptive. The same would be true of the Kerry campaign and some Move-On ads.

The rules governing public money -- and the limitations on donations that force supporters of a candidate to channel money to the 527s rather than directly supporting a candidate -- have caused the whole 527 free-for-all mess. Far from having negative ramifications, I think that having candidates and their supporters fund their own elections will have significant and positive effects, raising the tone of debate, refocusing us on real issues rather than wedge issues, and generally putting a candidate's fate back in his or her hands.

Beathan