Obama Kills Public Financing for Elections

A top adviser to President Barack Obama, whose rejection of public funding for his presidential campaign is widely considered to have killed the Watergate-era reform, is accusing Republican rival John McCain of damaging efforts to revive the system.

At issue is an interview the Arizona senator gave Friday to The Washington Times, in which he said that the public financing system, intended to reduce the influence of big money in presidential politics, is “dead.”

That comment – according to a blog post by Obama’s personal and political attorney Bob Bauer – “was not helpful” to “the cause of public financing reform.”

McCain’s assessment is both “wrong” and driven by sour grapes, wrote Bauer, who, as the lead attorney for Obama’s presidential campaign, played a key role in Obama’s reversal of an earlier pledge to take public financing.

McCain did participate in the system, giving him $84.1 million in taxpayer money but also limiting his spending to that amount and putting him at an extreme disadvantage to Obama’s fundraising juggernaut.

Obama’s $750 million fundraising haul means "no Republican in his or her right mind is going to agree to public financing. I mean, that's dead. That is over,” McCain told The Times. In a video accompanying the story, McCain said, “I’m expressing admiration, not anger. They were able to raise incredible amounts of money.”

But Bauer, who represents the Democratic National Committee as well as Obama’s outside political operation, called McCain’s reasoning “bitter.” - CNN Story

I don't get what Bauer is trying to put this on McCain. McCain is right, after the last election and the lopsided funds for each race, no one will go the public financing route again. Obama promised to do so and then saw the opportunity to raise way more money and basically buy his way to the White House. Why would anyone go back to public financing?

Obama did kill that. No one can reasonably argue otherwise. They can argue, but it will be without reason. Bauer says it is McCains' fault. Go figure, with the Obama people it is always someone elses fault.