June 30, 2008

It’s the principle, or rather the principal, of the issue

This could be Chapter 109, or something like that, in a book called “Why People Are Cynical About Politics.”

Why should politicians be surprised when surveys and polls show that people have a hard time believing what they say. Barack Obama has just added more fuel to that fire.

After making very direct statements that he promised to sit down with the Republican nominee and utilize the public financing for Presidential campaigns, he’s changed his mind. Why? To know one’s surprise, it’s all about money.

Obama has raised and will raise more money than he’d ever dreamed when he announced his bid well over a year ago. He claims to be doing it on “principle.” You can bet that if he didn’t have the huge war chest and the prospect of raising even more, his principles would be different.

Guess that’s why my cynical side has raised its ugly head. Not being a huge John McCain fan, I was willing to give this younger, charismatic man a fair shot. He promised a “new kind of politics ... change we can believe in.”

Looks like the same old politics. Make a promise when it suits your needs; break it when it doesn’t.

The practicality, merits and usefulness of the public financing concept and system has nothing to do with his flip-flop.

(According to one column I’ve read, technically a flip-flop is a 360-degree turn, returning to your original position, like a fish out of water that flips, then flops. It caused a big flap, but even that seems to have flopped. Not that all flips should cause a flap. And many flips are indeed a flop. But I digress.)

So whether he just flipped, or did a flip-flop, no one can deny he simply has gone back on his word, and we’re supposed to be okay with that since it was done on “principle.” (And we need to recognize that a change in a position truly based on principle is quite acceptable.)

But principle had nothing to do with it, unless you’re using the word in its financial context ... well, actually, its cousin, principal. At any rate, Obama opted out of public financing and the limits it would place on his remarkable fund raising abilities for purely tactical reasons.

And they wonder why we’re cynical.

by MARK MILLER

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