More On Obama Ruling

The Politico offers this report, which leads:

Prompted by Barack Obama, a federal panel Thursday granted unprecedented fundraising flexibility to presidential candidates.

But the unanimous ruling by the Federal Election Commission is likely to have little practical long-term impact. And it could leave Obama, the junior senator from Illinois and among the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination for president, in a tricky spot.

First, the ruling is not unprecedented. Merely because a question has not been asked, does not make it unprecedented. Congressional candidates, as a I noted in my previous post, have had this ability for some time. The only difference between the 2003 Advisory opinion and the Obama opinion is that Obama is seeking to preserve his right to choose public funding. Other than that, admittedly significant, quirk, this is no different from any other federal candidate raising general election funds prior to the primary.

But, in preserving the option, Obama and others who act in a similar fashion may indeed be put in a bind. They can probably raise more than the $80 million they will likely get from public funding, but wil be pressed by the campaign finance reform community, for what that is worth, to accept public funding.