Obama rejects public funding

Washington: Barack Obama has rejected public funding for the fall presidential campaign, a dramatic blow to 1970s good-government reform that has been overwhelmed by an explosion of private money.

John McCain confirmed later on Thursday that he will take $84.1 million (Dh308.9 million) in taxpayer funding for the general election, and accused Obama of reneging on a pledge to do the same. "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people," McCain told reporters.

Obama's decision to become the first major-party candidate to opt out of public financing for the general election frees him to continue his record-shattering, internet-driven fund-raising until November - and probably to outspend McCain by a vast amount. But it opens the Democrat to accusations of an about-face on past statements that he would take the public grant and limit spending to that amount if the Republican nominee agreed to do likewise.

In a video message to his supporters, Obama explained his reversal by asserting that the public-financing system is irreparably broken and he is instead involving the public through his "grassroots movement" of 1.5 million donors, many of whom give small amounts.

"We face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system," he said, contending that McCain is underwritten by lobbyists and special interests, and that his rival will not "stop the smears and attacks from his allies" in independent groups who can raise and spend unlimited funds.

Call for change 'undermined'

Firing back, McCain's campaign called Obama "just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient" and said his "reversal of his promise to participate in the public-finance system undermines his call for a new type of politics."

A longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, McCain qualified for public matching funds during the nomination phase but withdrew from the system and accepted no money. That move is now being challenged by the Democratic National Committee, which says McCain used the matching-fund certification to help secure a bank loan that kept his then-struggling campaign afloat. The Arizona senator filed a report on Thursday showing he raised $21.5 million in May, his best fund-raising month of the campaign.

Obama has touted his longstanding support for public financing. Answering the accusations of breaking a pledge, the Obama campaign contended that McCain has in effect been running a general election campaign with private funds in conjunction with the Republican National Committee since early March, when he locked up the GOP nomination, while Obama spent the past three months duelling Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Advocacy and watchdog groups said Obama's decision demonstrated the need to repair a public financing system in tatters, undermined in part by a precipitous slide in public support.

Common Cause, which advocates public financing, for years "has said the presidential public-finance system is badly outdated and in need of a major overhaul, so we made a decision at the beginning of the election season not to criticise candidates for not participating in a flawed system," the group's president, Bob Edgar, said in a statement. Obama "gets a demerit" for reneging on his pledge, Edgar said, but he praised the Democrat's decision to not accept contributions from lobbyists.