Campaign Financing

Interesting piece on NPR this morning, about the candidates' various views on campaign financing.   IMO, these candidates are amassing a truly obscene amount of money all for the purpose of lofting themselves to the most powerful position in the world.   Sure, someone has to do it and I'd rather it be my guy than the other team's guy.  But really, do they have to spend 100s of millions of dollars?  

Am I the only one who sees just a little bit of hypocrisy in the behavior of the DEMOCRATIC candidates?   Sure, we expect the republicans to joke about the "haves and the have mores" but you could feed and clothe a lot of poor children in Appalachia, or rebuild quite a few homes in Katrina-devastated New Orleans, with $100 million.    Or help a lot of Iraq veterans find jobs and health care.  

And isn't that what we as Democrats are supposed to be about?   I'm curious what folks' thoughts are on this one.   Thus, a poll.

McCain is offering to limit himself to the $50M fed funding limit if Obama will  (assuming Barack will be our flag-bearer, which I'm pretty sure is inevitable at this point).   Yes McCain has selfish reasons for proposing it (he is having trouble raising money), but putting that aside for a moment, he IS asking for it.  

Obama folks, Democrats?  What do we say?   If both candidates agree to accept the federal funding then we have a level playing field.  We've got a great candidate (as we all know!) and as Democrats we ARE interested in fairness, aren't we?   Aren't we?   Why not accept the federal money and the associated limits?

Here's your fairness poll: