Senator Obama announced yesterday that he would opt out of the publicly-financed mechanism for the general election. It makes sense considering how quickly and easily he's been able to raise money from small donors all over the United States. Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist believes Senator Obama may be able to raise "a half-billion dollars" between now and Election Day.
Considering how the RNC and President Bush slandered Senator Kerry during the summer months of 2004 with their disgraceful swift-boating ad, we understand Senator Obama's decision. Unfortunately, even some progressives like Public Citizen's President Joan Claybrook don't want to admit how revolutionary Senator Obama's campaign is. In today's Washington Post, she called, "$85 million 'plenty of money' and warned that private funding -- even in the mostly small sums that Obama relies on -- 'comes with the expectations of special access or favors.'"
This is simply ludicrous. While $85 million sounds like a lot of money, it would only provide the Obama campaign with about 70 cents to communicate with every American voter - barely enough for one piece of mail. Senator Obama has raised the vast majority of his campaign funds from 1.5 million small donors and has spurned contributions from PACs and federal lobbyist. But more importantly, the idea that those small donors feel entitled to "special access or favors" is laughable. The only special favor we want is to return democracy to the people. And we at 21st Century Democrats feel very confident that President Obama will do just that.
Mark Lotwis is the Executive Director of 21st Century Democrats