McCain challenges Obama on financing

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McCain challenges Obama on financing

February 16, 2008

OSHKOSH, Wis. - John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, admonished Democrat Barack Obama yesterday, accusing the senator of hedging on a pledge to accept public funding if he wins his party's nomination.

"I made the commitment to the American people that if I were the nominee of my party, I would accept public financing," McCain said. "I expect Senator Obama to keep his word to the American people as well."

Obama told reporters yesterday that if he were the nominee, his campaign would contact McCain's about abiding by the rules of the general election. "But it would be presumptuous of me to say now that I'm locking myself into something when I don't even know if the other side is going to agree to it," Obama said.

McCain said that if Obama becomes the nominee and decides against taking public money, he might do the same. Earlier this week, he turned down government matching funds for the primary to free him to spend more money as he prepares for a possible general election contest.

McCain would be the likely beneficiary under public financing because Obama has proved to be a better fund-raiser. Through January, Obama has brought in about $134 million to about $48 million for McCain.

Candidates who accept public funding are eligible for about $85 million, which is raised when taxpayers check off a $3 donation box on their income tax forms. No major party candidate rejected public funds for the general election since the system was put in place in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal.

Boston.com

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Unless Hillary Clinton has withdrawn from the race, Obama is not the nominee.

Why isn't McCain offering the same challenge to Clinton?

Why isn't Hillary's camp screaming about sexism over this exclusion?

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Butrflynet wrote:

Unless Hillary Clinton has withdrawn from the race, Obama is not the nominee.

Why isn't McCain offering the same challenge to Clinton?

Why isn't Hillary's camp screaming about sexism over this exclusion?

I don't think Hillary made the promise.

Obama did. Nice try at deflection though.

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Neither did Obama.

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Butrflynet wrote:

Neither did Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/us/politics/02fec.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1203221330-YRLVqo7LWihsf2iZGqO+aQ

Seems pretty damn close to me.

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Butrflynet wrote:

Neither did Obama.

Here's one of the first posts regarding this issue from the Obama 08 thread,

sozobe on March 02, 2007 wrote:

Just found out that Obama and McCain are talking about making a pact to stick to public financing if they each become the presidential nominee -- so cool on several levels!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/us/politics/02fec.html

Is it not "so cool" anymore?

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From the article you linked to:

Quote:

Mr. Obama laid out his proposal last month to the Federal Election Commission, seeking an opinion on its legality. The commissioners formally approved it on Thursday.

No promise to McCain was made. The NYTimes mis-characterizes Obama's communications with the FEC about the legality of his proposal, followed by McCain's "me too!" of the proposal, as an agreement between the two.

Obama hasn't made any agreements with anyone. He made a proposal and sought validation of it from the FEC.

That said, I'd like to see them both work within the public campaign financing limitations too. But, I think it is premature to be seeking agreements with each other since neither one of them have come close to reaching the delegate counts needed to be the nominee.

When it comes time to make such agreements, I want the agreement to include methods for eliminating 527s and other PACs from supplementing either campaign with their own ads whether they are negative or positive for the candidates. Without that, the candidates would be horses asses for agreeing to public funding limitations and not have a way to defend themselves against attack ads funded by others.

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"Talking about making a pact" is not the same as an agreement.

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maporsche wrote:

Butrflynet wrote:
Neither did Obama.

Here's one of the first posts regarding this issue from the Obama 08 thread,

sozobe on March 02, 2007 wrote:

Just found out that Obama and McCain are talking about making a pact to stick to public financing if they each become the presidential nominee -- so cool on several levels!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/us/politics/02fec.html

Is it not "so cool" anymore?

A public funding campaign is still very cool. What is not cool is the effort to represent the communication of a proposal to the FEC a year ago as an agreement between the two and then accuse Obama of flip flopping on it.

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Mr. McCain's advisers said that the candidate, despite his signature legislative efforts to restrict the money spent on political campaigns, would not accept public financing and spending limits for this year's general campaign. But in 2007, Mr. McCain did agree to a nonaggression pact with Senator Barack Obama to accept public financing, about $85 million each for the general election, if the Democratic nominee did the same.

Mr. McCain's advisers insisted that the senator was not turning his back on a campaign finance system, which bans large "soft-money" donations to the political parties, that he helped put in place. "The senator's always been an advocate of contributions from individual Americans," said Wayne Berman, a major McCain fund-raiser. "It's those contributions that are supporting his presidential campaign."

Mr. Berman was one of numerous Bush supporters who signed up to raise money for Mr. McCain early last year, when the senator was in his first incarnation as the Republican front-runner. But the campaign fell far short of its $100 million fund-raising target and by last summer had nearly collapsed in debt and recriminations. In November Mr. McCain took out a $3 million loan to keep the race alive through New Hampshire. His primary victory there on Jan. 8 opened wallets all over the country. Since then he has held 20 fund-raisers and collected more than $12 million.

Other major fund-raisers for Mr. McCain include Henry R. Kravis, the financier; A. Gerald Perenchio, the former chairman and chief executive of Univision Communications, the nation's largest Spanish-language broadcaster; and Lewis M. Eisenberg, the former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

This week and next Mr. McCain's advisers are planning strategy meetings to set new money targets, set a fund-raising schedule and discuss how they might use Mr. Bush at fund-raising events. They are also working on hiring staff members and setting up "McCain for president" offices around the country.

"We have to talk about the short term and the long term," Mr. Black said. "Basically you're changing from a primary campaign that runs on fumes and volunteers to a national campaign."

Correction: February 14, 2008
An article on Wednesday about Senator John McCain's decision to hire Mercer Reynolds, one of President Bush's major fund-raisers, misstated the position of Senator Barack Obama on using public financing for the general election. Although the Obama campaign has been raising private contributions for that election, Mr. Obama is still open to returning those contributions and abiding by the limits of the public financing system if the Republican nominee agrees to do the same. Mr. Obama has not definitively ruled out using public financing.

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From the article

Quote:

"Should John McCain win the Republican nomination, we will agree to accept public financing in the general election, if the Democratic nominee agrees to do the same," Mr. Nelson said.

A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Bill Burton, said, "We hope that each of the Republican candidates pledges to do the same."

Mr. Burton added that if nominated Mr. Obama would "aggressively pursue an agreement" with whoever was his opponent.

Gee, I wonder what was misrepresented.

McCain says that if he's elected he's for public financing and will pledge to do so.

Obama says that it's a great idea and that all republican candidates should do the same (which implies that he would do the same as well).

Now that it looks like Mr. Obama could very well be the nominee, where is this aggressive pursuit of an agreement?

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As he has repeatedly said this last few days, he isn't the nominee yet and it would be insulting to Hillary Clinton to presume so and start making agreements for the General Election.

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Butrflynet wrote:

As he has repeatedly said this last few days, he isn't the nominee yet and it would be insulting to Hillary Clinton to presume so and start making agreements for the General Election.

I've probably heard him say 1000 times "WHEN I'm elected president" even though he wasn't the nominee. I don't see anything insulting if he were to say "If McCain will accept public funding, I will accept public funding IF I'm the nominee."

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Butrflynet wrote:

...he isn't the nominee yet ,,,

No, he isn't the nominee, so why's he saying "My WhiteHouse"?

It's more my "WhiteHouse" than his. :wink:

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We are back to the "my candidate has no faults, and can do no wrong" defense of Obama supporters. "there is always an excuse that will allow my brain to give him a 'pass' even when he shouldn't get one, it psychological"

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Miller wrote:

Butrflynet wrote:
...he isn't the nominee yet ,,,

No, he isn't the nominee, so why's he saying "My WhiteHouse"?

It's more my "WhiteHouse" than his. :wink:

I'm not familiar with what you are referring to. Do you have a link to him saying this so I can read it for myself?

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Butrflynet wrote:

Miller wrote:
Butrflynet wrote:
...he isn't the nominee yet ,,,

No, he isn't the nominee, so why's he saying "My WhiteHouse"?

It's more my "WhiteHouse" than his. :wink:

I'm not familiar with what you are referring to. Do you have a link to him saying this so I can read it for myself?

Are you familiar with what I said?

"When I'M President..."

Isn't that rather presumptive when he's not even the nominee yet? Laughing

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maporsche wrote:

We are back to the "my candidate has no faults, and can do no wrong" defense of Obama supporters. "there is always an excuse that will allow my brain to give him a 'pass' even when he shouldn't get one, it psychological"

It isn't that he has no faults, it is that he's my chosen candidate for the next president regardless of those faults. I'm not expecting perfection from him nor do I presume him to be perfect.

Your problem is that you and I disagree as to what those faults are and which of those should be deal breakers.

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Obama

"I am running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won't work in my White House."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/699806,CST-NWS-sweet16s1.stng

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Butrflynet wrote:

Miller wrote:
Butrflynet wrote:
...he isn't the nominee yet ,,,

No, he isn't the nominee, so why's he saying "My WhiteHouse"?

It's more my "WhiteHouse" than his. :wink:

I'm not familiar with what you are referring to. Do you have a link to him saying this so I can read it for myself?

Obama said this on one of his debates, which I viewed on my TV.
I don't know which debate it was and I don't know which channel it was on.

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McCain challenges Obama on financing

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