John McCain’s skirting (at best) of the campaign finance laws he helped write is going to make it hard for him to give Barack Obama a hard time about Obama’s refusal to sacrifice his fundraising advantage by accepting public financing for the general election.
If John McCain tries to make any more fuss about Barack Obama’s supposed promise to accept public financing, and its limits, for the general election campaign as long as McCain does the same, Obama now has a perfect response: “Whenever Sen. McCain can straighten out his problems with the Federal Elections Commission over his violation of the McCain-Feingold Act, we’ll be happy to talk with him about taking public financing in the fall.”
Hilzoy explains.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman