John McCain is lacking in funds because his previous campaign manager overspent, and because his signature campaign finance reform legislation, McCain-Feingold, caps the amount of money an individual may donate to McCain's campaign. Ironically, campaign finance loopholes allow individuals to self-finance their campaigns, meaning that legislation McCain championed gave an outsize advantage to his rival Mitt Romney, who (as of September 30) spent more than $17 million of his own money on his campaign.
Now McCain is experiencing a revival, but his campaign still lacks funds to go up on the air and communicate to the mass voting public. The irony this time is that in addition to drawing a $3 million line of credit, a McCain-sympathetic outside group not covered by campaign finance reform plans to run ads in his favor. In order to win the nomination, the man who has spent more than a decade fighting money in politics and unregulated groups is relying on ... an unregulated group.
One wishes that McCain finally would wake up to the fact that campaign finance reform is a farce.
