Every Democratic candidate save for Dean and Kerry has now accepted matching funds. In my view this is tantamount to surrender. Let's say Gephardt spends like a madman and squeaks by Dean, taking the nomination. Gep would likely reach his $45 million spending limit somewhere around April. At that point, his campaign would effectively go dark. No commercials, no travelling, nothing. Rove would be able to smear him mercilessly with
no response from the Gephardt campaign until August.
This is political suicide. And it's not just Gephardt. Edwards has accepted matching funds. So has Clark. Besides Dean, the only holdout is Kerry, who opted out so that he might spend his own money on the campaign - another losing scenario.
How can any candidate except Dean compete against Bush with this handicap? Why did Clark opt out? And considering Rove's reputation, how can we now call anybody more "electable" than Dean - the one candidate who can compete financially with the Bush machine?