We Won't Be Swift-Boated Again

Barack Obama's decision not to accept public financing of his presidential campaign means that it will be much harder to Swift-Boat his campaign. The reason is that his campaign will have the resources to immediately respond and won't have to wait for Federal funds to be distributed between the time of his nomination and the time of the election.

In 2004 John Kerry agreed to accept Federal funding and, once he was nominated, couldn't spend the money he had raised for the primary campaign on television ads. He had to wait until the Federal Elections Commission distributed Federal funds to his campaign. Not suprisingly, that was the the exact time frame of the supposed independent group, "Swift-Boat Veterans for Truth" ran their ads.

Now, because of Obama's success in raising money, that kind of tactic will be much harder to duplicate. Now, if those kinds of ads are run, Obama will have the resources to quickly respond. This is just one more indication that he has learned the lessons of the 2000 and the 2004 campaigns.