causeandeffectworld.com Blog

Obama is no effete elite

As David Brooks sez today, Obama is not the ‘liberal goo-goo’ that Republicans are trying to paint, described by Brooks here:

God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.

While Obama might be able to win using public campaign financing (I think the Repubs are in the doghouse this year), I don’t mind that he is going to bypass public campaign financing. Why?

1. The Republican National Committee has much more money than the Democratic National Committee, which gives McCain the advantage.
2. Obama’s money comes from millions of individual donors, rather than 527′s or other large groups.
3. McCain has been running a privately-funded, unopposed campaign since February, which puts him in a better financial position
4. Obama and McCain lawyers couldn’t not come to agreements about how to limit the spending:

Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer said he had met with McCain lawyers to discuss terms for both campaigns operating in the public financing system, but he said they could not agree on how to limit spending by the campaigns and outside groups heading into the late summer party conventions.

The beauty of this move is that it appeals to Libertarians who Obama must appeal to in this election. No tax dollars. Millions of individual donors. Self-reliance. (take note, Hillary supporters).
Obama is playing to win. This move makes it quite obvious that he knows how and when to play hardball.
That’s what it takes to become President. That’s what it takes to lead.