Brooks goes to town on Barack Obama today, taking the bait on the campaign fiance reform contraversy. I am not an Obama apologist on this one, a pledge has been broken. But I can't help but feel that if a Republican candidate pulled out of public financing under the guise of "hard working americans' tax dollars shouldn't fund my campaign" no one would bat an eye, pledge or no pledge.
The bottom line, when a Republican does anything to win (i.e. Karl Rove and Co. promising evangelicals everything they wanted to hear in 2000, or John McCain cow-towing to Jerry Falwell) it's portrayed as intelligent tactical maneuvering. When a Democrat sacrifices principal to win, its seen only as political calculation.
Still its important to see the difference in stance:
and
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With corporate candidates like these in the Democrapic and Repubican Parties and the corporate media not covering publicly financed campaigns, we won't see full public financing in our lifetime.
That's the freedom we have in this country. Not much.
"Freedom is participation in power" - Cicero
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