Chapter VI: The Media Go Insane

This is maybe the weirdest election I've ever seen. When in the hell have you ever seen a decision about public financing treated as a scandal and turned into headlines?

Obama made ABSOLUTELY the right decision - the one that would give him the most money to campaign with - and that's what has them all reaching for the smelling salts. The Democrat is actually playing to win, and that's not allowed.

As a fine example of the double standard, here's from back in February. You probably don't remember it; it wasn't big news.

Feb. 23, 2008

Sen. John McCain is facing criticism from the government's top campaign finance regulator over his handling of an application for public financing last fall.

Early in the primary season, the Arizona Republican's campaign was almost broke and struggling to raise the type of money his competitors were. He applied for federal matching funds from the Federal Election Commission in order to continue with his campaign.

Now that McCain is the Republican front-runner and raising more money than he would be allowed to use if he took the public funds, he intends to use private donations to continue financing his campaign.

On Thursday, FEC chairman David Mason sent McCain a letter arguing that the candidate might be required to use the public funding until he answers questions about the loan he used to kickstart his campaign.

In his letter, Mason said McCain needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

In a statement to reporters on Friday, a McCain spokeswoman said that since the campaign never received any money from the federal government, it was free to opt out of the matching funds.

The senator himself, well-known for his campaign-finance reform efforts, expressed no concern about the letter.

The FEC determined that McCain was entitled to at least $5.8 million. However, McCain did not obtain the money, and he notified the FEC earlier this month that he would bypass the system, freeing him from its spending limits.

Opting out of the federal funds would be crucially important to McCain's success, allowing him to spend however much he wants.

But now John McCain is shocked - SHOCKED - that Obama is opting out of the system.

And the press - which buried the above story on page 33, if they mentioned it at all - is now VERY troubled by the same damned thing.