FIVE YEARS SINCE BARACK OBAMA BROKE THE CAMPAIGN FINANCING SYSTEM -- AND WON THE ELECTION

BARACK OBAMA 

ANNOUNCES 

HE WILL NOT 

TAKE MONEY 

FROM THE 

PUBLIC FINANCING 

SYSTEM 

June 19, 2008 

"UNITE FOR CHANGE"

LOTS & LOTS & LOTS 

OF "CHANGE" 

Millions and Millions of Dollars of  
"Change" 

Yes, the campaign was against "unilateral disarmament" on the financial front; it could argue that it got lots of small contributions -- but already right away, five years ago, the stark fact was that "Obama is the first U.S. presidential candidate to bypass the public financing system since it was created after the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s" (Reuters, June 21, 2008, here). 

JOHN EDWARDS INDICTED (WHO ELSE?)

JOHN EDWARDS 

IS 

INDICTED 

JOHN EDWARDS PASSIONATELY 

MAKES A POINT 

ACCEPTING THE 

VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION 

AT THE 2004 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 

June 3, 2011:  "Johnny Reid Edwards" is indicted for, in the words of the AP writers, "soliciting and covering up the secret spending of more than $925,000 to hide his mistress and their baby during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House."  (The indictment itself can be seen here.)  

THE ROOT OF ALL...: OBAMA & THE REJECTION OF PUBLIC FINANCING, June 19, 2008

THE ROOT OF ALL... 

BARACK OBAMA & 

THE REJECTION OF

PUBLIC FINANCING

June 19, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Obama's decision two years ago "to break an earlier pledge to take public money will quite likely transform the landscape of presidential campaigns, injecting hundreds of millions of additional dollars into the race and raising doubts about the future of public financing for national races," wrote Michael Luo and Jeff Zeleny in the New York Times already the day after. "Obama’s Decision Threatens Public Financing System" was the headline of another NYT piece of the day.