Dependence Day

The man who, because political fundraising isn't yet completely nationalized, has opted to privatize his own fundraising tries to explain what in his own name he's referring to by the phrase "broken system":

The lie about not taking contributions from PACs - check; the lie about not taking money from lobbyists - check; defining every individual or group he doesn't like a "special interest" but exempting Obamanation from that definition - check; smearing Darth Queeg as a beneficiary of those "special interests," despite the fact that he's remaining within the public fundraising "system", as Lucifer had spent months up to now promising to do - check.

Implicitly conceding that he hasn't done jack about the issue in his three years in the Senate is novel, I suppose.  So, if you really stretch it, is the marketing gimmick he's come up with to try and sell heaving his "reformer" mantle overboard for the sake of rapacious greed:

Barack Obama just announced a major strategic decision — this campaign will not participate in the broken public financing system for the general election.

Our opponents are dedicated to manipulating this broken system to raise as much money as possible — and they’ve proven they are very good at it.

To compete, Barack has decided to keep putting his faith in ordinary people like you giving only what you can afford.

Make your first contribution to Join Barack today, and declare your independence from our broken system.

To "compete"?  BO is actually begging poverty?  And using the July 4th holiday ("independence!") for his fig leaf?  A man who has sucked up hundreds of millions of dollars in the past year and a half, with hundreds of millions more just waiting to be plucked?

On the other hand, by opting out of the "broken system" (If it wasn't "broken," he wouldn't have that option - lucky him), he can raise hundreds of millions of bucks PLUS the hundreds of millions more from the Donk 527s that would be doing so either way.  Why can't he just fess up and admit that he's doing so because he can vacuum up as much as five times that sum from the Left's bottomless money pit?  The best part would be that there'd be nothing that we free speech advocates could really criticize about it.  Cynical, opportunistic genius, right?

Maybe not:

I suppose this goes to show that there are some semi-grown-ups in Obamanation who suffer from the quaint anachronistic mental tic of believing that words mean things, and if a candidate says he's going to do something, it matters if he reneges.  Perhaps that's what Chuck Todd is referring to when he speaks of Obama's "arrogance".....:

....and what David Broder is referring to as "brand damage":

Obama supporters note that town halls are McCain's favorite campaign settings, so it's no surprise he prefers them to formal speeches, where Obama excels. They point out that public financing helps McCain, who has lagged all year in his private fundraising, while it would inhibit Obama, who has tapped into a rich vein of small contributors using the Internet.

But it's also the case that the multiple joint town meetings McCain proposed would be a real service to the public and that suspending the dollar chase for the duration of the campaign, as McCain but not Obama will do, would be a major step toward establishing the credibility of the election process.

By refusing to join McCain in these initiatives in order to protect his own interests, Obama raises an important question: Has he built sufficient trust so that his motives will be accepted by the voters who are only now starting to figure out what makes him tick?

Let's put this in some relevant perspective: When Bill Clinton first ran for president sixteen years ago, nobody had ever heard of him outside Arkansas.  The first public impression of him was the Jennifer Flowers/60 Minutes interview of him and Hillary that established him as a lying, philandering sack of taknar droppings.  But he was able to overcome that because he was such a GOOD liar and a superlative public performer as well.  None of his faults, his corruptions, his congenital dishonesty mattered to most Americans; they fell in love with him anyway and never fell out of it again.

Nobody had ever heard of Barack Hussein Obama outside Chicago until three years ago.  In those three years he's done little other than run for president.  Thus his "brand" is only now being established.  And what kind of brand is it?  A candidate who has some of the worst people in the world for mentors and advisors; who is a doctrinaire left-wing extremist right across the issue spectrum; who has now become a race-baiter and smear perpetrator; who comes across as a relentless dolt when dragged away from a teleprompter; and who will abandon any principle and shaft any constituency at the drop of a coin or hanging chad.

Topping it off is that His Eminence is an abysmal liar.

The brutal, bottom-line fact is that if Barry O weren't black, he couldn't get elected dog-catcher, and the only way he'd get near the White House is to take the daily public tour.

Will that become his "brand"?  God knows it should, but probably not.

And yet....:

Democrat Barack Obama raised $22 million in May for his presidential campaign, his weakest fundraising month this year, and ended the month with $43 million cash on hand, the campaign reported Friday.

The May figures place Obama and McCain on nearly equal footing. McCain raised $21 million in May and reported $31.6 million cash on hand at month’s end.

But McCain also benefited from the Republican National Committee, which reported $53.5 million cash on hand to the Democratic national committee’s $4 million. The parties are already working with their respective presidential candidates to coordinate their campaigns.

An draining bathtub is not the metaphor Cap'n Hopeandchange expected his revenue stream to resemble.  Does it rebound now that Mrs. Clinton is (supposedly) "out of the race"?

Um, no:

Hillary Clinton’s money woes complicate this as well.  She has over $20 million in debt, perhaps more than $30 million.  Obama obviously cannot retire that debt himself, which means she has to spend her time holding fundraisers for herself and not for Obama.  While she does that, attention will get diverted from Obama and potential funds that could go into his campaign will be lost to pay off Hillary’s debts instead.

Bear in mind, lastly, that even with all that moolah, BO cratered down the primary campaign home stretch, losing twelve of the last fifteen contests and failing to win a single swing state.  A trend that mirrored the direction of his fundraising totals and coincided mysteriously with the multiple PR disasters that accompanied his first brushes with public scrutiny.

Are the wheels coming off of False Messiah's donkey's colt?  It's becoming harder and harder not to wonder.

But not who's waiting to swoop in and take advantage of it.