Obama and Public Financing

So, McCain is calling Obama a hypocrite and flip-flopper over his decision to forgo public financing this election. They're saying that he "broke his word to the American people"... but what word did Obama actually give?

If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Over and over, in every example I see cited, those are his actual words. Now, I've been led to believe by Rush Limbaugh that Words Mean Things. What Obama did not say is "I will take public financing." He said he would take public financing if an agreement could be reached. But McCain has given the green light to the Republican 527s - unaccountable organizations tailor-made for the Republican's brand of smear-and-fear based politics. Therefore, an agreement could not be reached. No words have been broken in this process.

Instead, this shines a light on the Republican's eagerness for a side-show driven election, where attacks come from outside groups and therefore the Maverick can appear above the fray. Why not shutter the 527s, as Obama has impressively done with MoveOn, and have an election driven by the candidates and what they themselves inject into it?

Why not? Because then the Republicans would have to talk about issues, and on the issues they fail epically. Let's get a little list of those failures from John Cole, my favorite ex-Republican:

The New York Times: Bush May End Term With Iran Issue Unsettled

No shit.

And Iraq
And Afghanistan
And gas prices
And food prices
And the economy
And the housing crisis
And our descimated military
And the debt
And emergency management
And healthcare
And North Korea
And Palestine/Israel
And the environment
And the trade deficit
And keeping religion out of government
And our relationships with Europe and the rest of the world
And human rights
And education
And the war on drugs
And food and drug safety
And cronyism
And the dollar
And the Supreme Court
And Medicare Part D. (I forgot about that one.)

The Republicans cannot allow this election to be about the issues, or they'll lose in an unequaled landslide. So they must make the election about being afraid of Obama personally, for a slew of reasons, not the least of which will be that he is Black. How will they do that? With the 527s. In order for Obama to "keep his word," in their eyes, he has to agree to this kind of campaign. Instead, he refused. Our election and nation will be better for it.