Barack Hussein Obama may have supported the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms in the U.S. Senate, but his decision to reject "public financing," which gives him a significant financial edge in the Fall election, is surely not in keeping with his prior statements of support for campaign finance reform.
Regardless of his flip-flop, I don’t blame him, as I think public financing of Presidential campaigns is a misuse of taxpayers funds and I can understand a candidate wanting to build every edge they can in their campaign. I’m glad the requirement is optional. However, the "opt-out" is a loop-hole that BHO is taking advantage of, and because of McCain’s association with campaign finance reform, it is a loop-hole McCain can’t use himself.
But the biggest loop-hole for BHO, (or "BO" for those who think using "Hussein" is too alarming) isn’t opting out of public financing. Rather, it is the Federal Election Commission’s regulation, known as the "News Story Exemption," that is giving Obama a very big media edge at the moment, and it is happening right now in Berlin and Paris.
The Federal rules on presidential campaigns limit contributions to Obama to $2,300 per person, and corporate contributions or corporate independent expenditures are completely banned. Yet, Title 11, Section 100.73 of the Code of Federal Regulations provides that "[a]ny cost incurred in covering or carrying a news story" …."is not a contribution." Thus, when a major news corporation incurs or contemplates an expense to cover a news story on the presidential campaign, they have a blank check to spend as much as they want on any candidate they want as long as their activity results in a "bona fide" news account that gives "reasonably equal coverage" to all opposing candidates. The law doesn’t say "equal" coverage. It says "reasonably equal" coverage.
Thus, the huge expenditure by U.S. main-stream media outlets to cover Obama in Berlin, including international travel by all three of the network anchors and their extensive entourages, and the $250,000 or so spent by the government of Berlin to setup the "Victory Column" backdrop, is not a prohibited contribution to Obama’s campaign, despite all the swooning, because the media still has the opportunity to give "reasonably equal" coverage to McCain. Such as the black-and-white picture someone took of McCain eating a chocolate ecclair at Schmidt’s Wursthaus in Columbus, Ohio, day before yesterday.
How can Senator McCain compete in this biased media environment with the candidate that "Captivates the World!" according to the Los Angeles Times? Well, despite all the corporate spending, let’s hope that the emerging news of polls turning McCain’s way while Obama campaigns in France will show the MSM black-out on McCain is short-lived and will have no legs.