Senator Obama made a not-so-surprise decision yesterday and opted out of public financing yesterday. The first candidate to not take tax-payer dollars to fund his General Election campaign in history, Obama's choice stemmed from the simple fact that he is raising more money a month than the public system would have given him to play with from the end of August till November.
There is a political risk here in that he gave the clear impression that he would opt into the public financing system if his opponent did, last year. I believe that this is ultimately a question of process and Obama will win the spin war on two fronts, one he already established, that the system was essentially broken and easily gamed anyway. The other, that the vast majority of his funding is made voluntarily by his supports in small amounts. John McCain's campaign would be funded by tax payer money.
Overall this is a win for Obama, and I think deep down, most Americans won't see much of a problem with a candidate NOT leaving potentially $500 million on the table.
Of course Politico.com is all over this. Here's their multimedia tour. And Ben Smith pens this view, Obama's decision is right in line with the rest of his campaign.
One last thought, this will annoy editorialists and political insiders but it will be a non-story in 2 days. When something is running hard in Politico but nowhere else, you know its an insider story.
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