give me a candidate - so fresh and so clean
by Paige Cram
Published: March 5, 2008
I’ve always said that the best way to get to know a candidate is to watch how he or she reacts when backed into a corner. Apparently Brian Williams and Tim Russert feel the same way, as they were asking some pretty tough questions at last Tuesday’s Democratic debate. I, for one, was glad to see it, and for the most part, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama reacted just as I thought they would.
There was, however, a surprise moment when the question of campaign finance was thrown at Senator Obama. Last year, he made a pledge to run a publicly funded campaign, as long as his opponent would do the same. Now that his fundraising power has proven much stronger than anyone might have expected, the question was whether the senator still intended to uphold his promise.
His response? An uninspiring and unconvincing, “I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that is fair to both sides.”
Many would argue this is nothing new. A politician who doesn’t keep his word? What’s surprising about that? But the problem Senator Obama will have if he reneges on his promise is that it is the heart and soul of his entire campaign.
How can one change Washington without public financing? It is the moral high ground on which he stands that has gotten him this far, and to trade in his promise now for “business as usual” will be a disappointing blow to all those who have rallied behind him as the future President. How can any of his supporters believe in the change he speaks of if he begins so early on by letting them down?
Discussion of having public financing in the general election has brought the issue of clean elections, finally, to the national stage. According to the Public Campaign Action Fund (PCAF), clean elections are already practiced in seven states: Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, New Jersey, Vermont and Connecticut. Instead of spending such a tremendous amount of time fundraising and handing out IOUs for political favors, candidates must simply gather signatures and a set number of small donations in order to prove they have a base of support. Then they receive a grant from the state and agree to spend only that amount. Although it’s a voluntary system, records show that the majority of candidates will choose public financing when given the option. PCAF states that over 80 percent of the state legislators in Maine got to office on public funds, and over 60 percent of candidates in Arizona participated in the program.
The system allows those politicians to head to work, beholden to their constituents, but not to any other donors. It also gives them a lot more free time in which to focus on the issues and the voters - in other words, to do their job. Sounds pretty practical, right? How could this not already be a national policy?
Well, because up until now, Washington hasn’t been run that way. There are a great number of private donors, lobbyists and special interest groups who already have influence in the government and would hate to see that influence diminish. So they use their existing power to quell any major progress of the clean elections movement. It’s an awfully vicious circle.
And what better way to break it than by starting with the Oval Office, by electing a president who is, in the immortal words of Outkast, “so fresh and so clean.” Barack Obama made a promise to be that candidate, a newcomer to the dirty ways of politics, arriving on a wave of public support that would wash the corruption out of Washington.
Over the years, my expectation of the integrity of politicians has become alarmingly low, but because he spoke to us about the “audacity of hope,” we believed. I can only hope now, that his hesitation at the debate was not quite as ominous as it sounded. I can only hope, as an Obama supporter, but more so as an American citizen and a supporter of clean elections, that he will keep his word. Because the one thing we do need in this country is change, and if we can’t look to our president to set an example, then hope will get us nowhere.
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