Obama should make disavowing all 527 ads a condition of agreeing to a publicly financed campaign

[LordJFT]

Discuss.

[lurky]

1. They always disavow them.

"I had nothing to do with that ad!" (wink wink).

[LordJFT]

4. I wonder would there be a way to make them illegal? if both candidates agreed to it

[MonkeyFunk]

15. Not without throwing away the first amendment

If I wanna take out a full page ad saying so-and-so is a lousy candidate, the government can't stop me.

[jackson_dem]

2. Good idea

It turns the tables on Mr. "campaign finance reform". Let's see if he is willing to stand for real reform and disarm the rethug weapon of choice for dirty warfare. If it weren't for the swiftboating Kerry-Edwards would be running for a second term right now.

[Skip Intro]

3. Woudln't hold my breath on that one.

[babylonsister]

5. He shouldn't have to agree to anything as far as public financing

unless he thinks it will benefit him. This is about to turn cutthroat; I trust Obama will make the right choice.

[pnwmom]

12. I would hate to see him take public funding. Too much is riding on

this year's election, and he could have a massive war chest if he's the nominee.

[bluestateguy]

6. Which of course the candidates would be powerless to do

I could see it now: "Oh my goodness! Why I had nothing to do with THAT ad" ;)

A candidate is legally powerless to stop any advocacy group that wants to run an "independent" expenditure on his behalf.

Obama did say something about "pursuing an agreement" with McCain to reach an agreement. Maybe he could make this one of the conditions of a public financing agreement, knowing full well that it would be a deal-breaker. Then he could say the promise was kept, and he could spend his own campaign money again.

[NMMatt]

14. This is how I see it go down...

He is going to take a PR hit if he doesn't accept public financing. There is no way around that. What they need to do is figure out which would be worse - take the PR hit that serves undermine one of the basic premises of his campaign or forgo what would be a big financial advantage.

If there is a way to funnel all the money to the Democratic Party... i.e. turn over the donor list and raise the money through the Party and then accept Public Financing it might be a big PR coupe... i.e. he would be seen as even more pricipled than McCain since he will be publicly giving up a big advantage on principle.

[calmblueocean]

7. What good's a disavowal? It won't stop them. Obama should reject public financing.

McCain-Feingold actually hit Democrats a lot harder than it hit Republicans -- that fact is why Hillary has had a harder time raising money to keep pace with Barack. Obama has a huge fundraising machine in place, and hundreds of thousands of donors ready to give as often as he needs them to to defeat McCain. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to fall on the sword this year.

McCain does not have an energized donor base now, and it's doubtful he ever will during this campaign. Good. We can bury him. Unless we're stupid enough to give that advantage away for a few brownie points.

[boppers]

8. Slight constitutional issue there.

While a past constitutional law teacher can add information to the debate, the underlying issues remain.

[TexasObserver]

9. He shouldn't agree to public financing at all. And candidates cannot control 527s.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Will McCain disavow NBC, CBS, FOX, WaPo, Tribune Co., NYT?

That is where his free publicity will come.

The Democrat will become "John Edwards" after the nomination.

[pnwmom]

11. That will do nothing to stop them. He shouldn't accept public funds.

Period.

Now is not the year to pull any punches. He's going to have a huge campaign war chest, if he's the nominee, and he should spend every penny.

[Sherman A1]

13. I would agree, but with the provision that the number of debates is at least

doubled or tripled. I think all he needs to do is stand on a stage next to McCain and the visual contrast is clear, even before the actual words are spoken. On one side we have tomorrow on the other we have yesterday.

If he is the nominee, I don't think he needs an ad buy anywhere, just personal appearances, press conferences and debates.


Just my opinion.....