Obama cries foul, I laugh about campaign spending

From WaPo's Politics Blog we have this dandy:

Obama Derides Outside Spending

For much of the last week, Barack Obama has alleged that the series of independent organizations spending money on behalf of his main Democratic rivals in Iowa raise real questions about those candidates' commitment to serious reform of the political process...

While assuring supporters that the Obama campaign has the "financial and organizational resources to compete aggressively in all four early states and through February 5th," Plouffe adds: "There is no doubt that the size of the spending and its underhanded nature deserve further scrutiny."

This is what happens when you have the archaic campaign finance regulations that we have. You have a major presidential campaign saying words like "underhanded" and calling for "further" scrutiny because someone out there has money and has decided to spend it on political speech. You know that little thing that's guaranteed by the first amendment (not exotic dancing as some people erroneously believe).

For the record, I'm against any sort of caps on campaign contributions. I think the solution is disclosure. Every penny should be disclosed. If General Electric wants to give a candidate $100 million, fine but the voters should take that into consideration when they vote. All the current restrictions do is drive the money underground. As the WaPo blogger correctly asserts, the average voter has no idea what a "527" is. For those of you who don't know, they are a specific type of organization that isn't directly tied to a candidate. Instead of flowing to candidates much of the campaign contributions (usually the overflow because of per person restrictions ) goes to these 527 groups who run ads in favor of candidates that aren't specifically authorized by those candidates. In other words, the dirtiest ads are run by 527s.

Another proof of the law of unintended consequences. By the way, some people like Joe Garcia think the answer is publicly financed (by your tax dollars and mine) elections. Remember that on April 15th and then remember it next November.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at December 29, 2007 10:32 PM

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Posted by: Scott at December 30, 2007 11:56 AM

Posted by: Guajiro_de_Broward at December 31, 2007 11:02 AM

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