It looks like Edwards is going to accept public financing for his Democratic primary campaign. While the article I read waffles, it seems like this is bad news for Edwards. And that’s bad for us. Not because Edwards is the better than Obama or Clinton, though I do happen to believe that. It’s bad because it indicates the utter brokenness of public financing. As campaign spending increases, the public financing system has to accomodate that fact. In a reasonable world, I think that this would be semi-automatic. A truly good system of public financing would be a good way to avoid the excesses of the current system without having to deal with the headaches and possible constitutional challenges which are characteristic of McCain-Feingold and similar schemes.
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Public financing has worked very well in Arizona and Maine for almost a decade. The presidential system should be updated and patterned after those proven state systems (as Russ Feingold is proposing)…and then expanded to include Congressional elections (which Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter are proposing). Freeing public officials from their dependence on private money is a prerequisite for just about any legislation the public wants: change of war policy, healthcare, global warming, education, etc.