RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Barack Hussein Obama in '08?

Sen. Barack Obama's announcement Thursday that he won't participate in the public financing system for this fall's general election was no big surprise. He has been telegraphing the move for months. But it is disappointing nevertheless, particularly for a candidate who claims to be running as a reformer and a different kind of politician.

In this case, Obama is choosing to be different by becoming the first presidential candidate to spurn public financing since Richard Nixon's excesses led to its creation. That's not the sort of change voters expected when he pledged last fall to "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

But that was then, and this is now. Obama has become a remarkably effective money raiser who has will take public money instead of private donations for the general election. Obama's "aggressive" pursuit of an agreement with McCain appears to have consisted of little more than a single meeting between aides for the two campaigns.

Despite the Democrat's earnest rhetoric about declaring independence from a "broken" system and the edge the cash-rich Republican National Committee gives McCain, it's hard to escape the conclusion that Obama's huge financial advantage over McCain is the real reason for his move.

The public system — financed with the voluntary $3 checkoff on tax returns — is far from perfect. But is it broken? Maybe for the primaries, where it provides so little money that almost every major candidate opted out. For the general election, however, it's robust enough to offer each candidate $84.1 million to spend in September and October if he forgoes private donations. Shouldn't that be enough?

Although Obama is being disingenuous about his reasons for opting out of public financing, he gets points for jawboning against the independent groups called "527s," after the section of the tax code they operate under.

Free of the contribution limits that apply to candidates and party committees, the 527s can raise vast sums and coarsen the campaign by smearing rivals in ways the candidates themselves cannot. McCain has said he can't "referee " them. He and Obama should at least try.

Obama likewise deserves credit for raising most of his campaign money from small donors in contributions of less than $200.

He's way ahead of McCain in that respect — but he's hardly the influence-free candidate he styles himself as. One-third of his money comes from the sort of big donors and bundlers whose influence public financing is designed to lessen.

Obama's pledge to reform the campaign-finance system after he gets elected reminds us of St. Augustine's famous prayer: "Lord, make me chaste — but not yet."

Real reformers don't do it just when it's convenient. The best way for Obama to support public financing is not to fix it later, but to participate in it now.