Obama is making noises about abandoning his pledge to use public financing for the general election. For conservatives, this is kind of a non-starter. We aren't supposed to believe in public financing anyway, and Allahpundit pretty well sums up the predicament McCain is going to find himself in come fall: "Gulp."
Still, there's something troubling about this:
Tonight at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of Women in the Arts -- at a $2,300-per-person event for 200 people held before a $1,000-per-person reception for 350 people -- Obama previewed his argument to justify this possible future discarding of a principle.
"We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful," Obama said.
A few weeks ago Marc Ambinder previewed the logic--that Obama could somewhat reasonably claim to be running a publicly financed campaign because he draws support from a million or more small donors. But like Obama's pledge to fight special interests last week--which was made at an AFL-CIO event--it seems more than a little disingenuous to make these comments while at a high-priced fundraiser in Washington, DC.
What's disconcerting is how oblivious Obama can be to the appearance of hypocrisy. It looks arrogant.
