In 2001, Senator McCain said the bill he was co-sponsoring with Russ Feingold (McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act) would keep [i]big money out of politics.[/i]
In the final days of the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator McCain said, [i]”They spent more, that’s the element ….. He (Obama) told the American people something that was patently false and then he’s raised a whole lot of money and the implications of that for future presidential elections should be very disturbing to every American. One thing we’ve shown in history – you get unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, you get corruption and you get scandals,”[/i]
(Not to mention the $$$$ spent by the various 527 organizations.)
[i]The prospect of being financially hamstrung by the very fundraising system he helped create is the latest in a series of bitter challenges for the presumed GOP nominee…..[/i]
– The Washington Post in February 2008
[i]McCain advisers say Obama spent his way into putting North Carolina in play, using his formidable campaign warchest to bombard the state with TV ads. Obama outspent McCain on TV in North Carolina from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 by an eight-to-one margin — more than $1.2 million compared with $148,000 for McCain, according to TNS Media Intelligence Campaign Media Analysis Group and the Wisconsin Advertising Project….. The McCain campaign said it is not surprised that Florida would be close. Obama has spent more than $10 million on TV ads that have been running for months.
Speaking a few hours after Obama’s campaign reported raising a record $150 million in September, McCain said the overall sum the Democrat has raised for his campaign — $605 million — showed the “dam has broken” for future White House races….. The Arizona senator has been limited to spending $84 million for the general election campaign after accepting federal funds under a program created after the Watergate scandal. Obama initially indicated he would adhere to the same limit, but reversed course and became the first post-Watergate candidate to finance a general-election campaign with private funding.[/i]
A look back in history. It looks like Cato was dead-on with this one.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-393es.html
It could be argued that John McCain doomed his own campaign with a bill that he, himself, pushed through Congress.
And something about [i]buying elections[/i] comes to mind. (Oh, right, it was all money from [i]the little guy[/i].)
