Obama Disappoints Again

In the wake of his decision to avoid debating John McCain in a series of town debates, Barack Obama now elects to forgo public financing of his campaign. Obama is the first candidate to do so since 1976 (when the system began), so I suppose that technically he is the "change" candidate. Not only did Obama renege on his pledge to accept public financing, but he is setting a poor political example. Yes, it's true that Obama opted out of the system because he has the ability to raise far more money via private donations, but that is not the point. Presidential elections should be entirely publicly financed. No corporate money, no lobbyist money, no two thousand dollar a plate dinners. Either continue the "$3 dollar system" in which a tax payer elects to contribute to the fund or simply appropriate the three dollars from every tax return filed. Furthermore, airtime on the major networks should be free--after all, the public owns the airwaves, not the networks. With such a system, the elected president will truly be a servant of the people because his campaign was financed by the people and the people alone. And not just his supporters or members of his own party, but a wide cross section of Americans. Currently, public financing makes approximately $85 million dollars available to each candidate. That is more than enough to run a presidential campaign.