DALLAS, TEXAS–After he launched his presidential bid, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would take public financing for his campaign if the Democratic nominee if his GOP counterpart agreed to do the same. At the time, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would and now he has emerged as the Republican presumptive nominee. Obama was asked to re-affirm his pledge. He declined.
Obama does not like work on the timetable of someone else. But his hestitancy to speak out left him open to criticism from McCain and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) that he broke his pledge
In an op ed the Wednesday USA Today, Obama spelled out his conditions for taking public financing. LINK
Obama wrote, “I propose a meaningful agreement in good faith that results in real spending limits. The candidates will have to commit to discouraging cheating by their supporters; to refusing fundraising help to outside groups; and to limiting their own parties to legal forms of involvement. And the agreement may have to address the amounts that Senator McCain, the presumptive nominee of his party, will spend for the general election while the Democratic primary contest continues.”
