Wadhams blast Obama, Dems on money decision

Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams told the Inside Edge today that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's decision to break his pledge to accept only public financing of his presidential campaign was symptomatic of "leftist hypocrisy on campaign finance reform."

In video put out earlier today Obama officially reneged on his pledge made in November of 2007 to "agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election."

He added in his written statement at the time: "The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

It was widely anticipated that Obama would renege on this pledge. After all, Obama has been able to raise over $250 million thus far for his campaign, according to opensecrets.org, with $30 million coming in April alone. And at the time it was not widely expected that McCain would win the GOP nod.

According to the Federal Election Commission public funds for presidential candidates is restricted to $84 million for the 2008 election cycle.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has raised $96 million and has accepted public financing and the consequent spending limits that go along with acceptance of public money.

In a video put out by the Obama campaign today, the candidate, apparently reading from cue cards said: "It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."

John McCain who was surveying Iowa flood-damage responded to the Obama decision according to CNN by saying "This election is about a lot of things, but it's also about trust. It's also about whether you can take people's word. ... He said he would stick to his agreement. He didn't"

McCain, who has often fought with his own party about his signature campaign finance reform legislation which was widely considered to favor Democrats, said that he'd have to reconsider using public financing in light of the Obama campaign's broken pledge but CNN added that still  "he said he leans toward taking public money."

"The Obama decision," said Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams "is the latest example of leftist hypocrisy on campaign finance reform.  They decry money in politics and then exploit campaign finance laws to move even more money into campaigns, especially in the case of 527's, although the Obama campaign is symptomatic of the hypocrisy as well."