Edwards Money: Principle or Pragmatism? (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 10/02/2007 @ 10:09am
Edwards Money: Principle or Pragmatism?
Ari Berman


Last week John Edwards became the first major contender to opt into the voluntary presidential campaign financing system. Edwards portrayed the decision as a red badge of courage--playing the part of a principled reformer fighting a corrupt Washington system.

But his decision was also borne of pure political pragmatism and could have lasting and negative ramifications. Truth is, Edwards was badly trailing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the money chase. Now he'll get an emergency injection of much-needed campaign cash, to the tune of $10 million in matching funds. But he'll be severely constrained on how he spends his money and where. Between now and the Democratic convention come next summer, Edwards will have only $50 million to spend. By contrast, Obama has already raised $80 million this year, including $19 million in the third quarter of this year. Clinton took in $27 million this quarter alone.

If Edwards somehow wins the Democratic nomination, he'll be badly outspent by the likely Republican nominee, at least until the fall. Ask John Kerry (or John Edwards) how it felt to be maimed by attack ads and ground troops and not have the dough to fight back.

The media tends to overstate the value of money in political campaigns. It ain't everything. But every dollar helps. Until candidates commit to fixing a broken public financing system, even reformers will have to play in the mud.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=239105

[Froward69]

1. Sad but true.

[jsamuel]

2. Not true: Edwards decided to adopt public financing 2 months ago

http://jsamuelirregular.blogspot.com/2007/10/john-edwards-decided-to-adopt-public.html

http://jsamuelirregular.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-on-john-edwards-decision-to-adopt.html