Will Howard Dean do what he just said he would?

[Karmadillo]

Interesting proposal.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2090927/

<edit>

At the end of tonight's event, Paul Johnson, an independent voter from Nashua who supported John McCain in 2000 and has supported Dean since May, tells Dean that he's "deeply troubled" by the idea that his candidate is going to turn down federal matching funds and bust the caps on campaign spending. Politics is awash in too much money, Johnson says. Why not take the moral high ground and abide by the current system? That sounds like a great idea until Bush spends $200 million, Dean says. Well, then "challenge him to spend less," Johnson replies. Tell him you'll stay under the spending limits if he does, too. Dean's face lights up. "I'll do that at the press conference on Saturday," he says. "That's a great idea." (Saturday at noon is when Dean is scheduled to announce the results of the campaign vote on whether to abandon public financing.)

I walk over to Dean's New Hampshire press secretary, Matthew Gardner, and tell him his candidate just agreed, in an instant, to announce on Saturday that he'll stay under the federal spending caps for publicly financed candidates, if President Bush agrees to do the same (which, admittedly, is more than a little unlikely.) Gardner looks puzzled, then laughs. "That'll be interesting," he says. "We'll see if it happens."

more...

[Hep]

1. WOW!

Dean doesn't have to decide until January whethre or not he takes the funds. So it gives him the opportunity to do this. An open challenge to Bush to stay under the cap. What a great idea.

But one problem. What does bush do with the extra money? Give it to the RNC so they can spend it on his behalf?

[pruner]

10. I think the deadline for deciding on matching funds is December 1…

but I may be wrong.

[Hep]

11. You could be right

But it makes sens that it would be at the end of the fourth quarter/beginning of the first rather than in the middle of a quarter. Idunno.

20. what does he do with the money?

move someplace that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

[Noordam]

2. That is the Dumbest thing Dean could do

Sure * will stay under the limit for the primary... He is running against nobody...

[Hep]

4. Well

I think the challange would be for the general election.

[Cocoa]

5. presumably it's for the general election

right?

[wysimdnwyg]

12. No, for the primaries

The rule states that they can spend up to an amount ($45 million?) for the primary, then again ($75M) for the general. Bush's plan is to spend as much as he can until the repug convention, then use federal money for the general. With their convention in Sept., he'll only have two months to spend all the $75M for the general. And he gets to spend $200M before, all against the Dem candidate.

Look for a huge marketing blitz next summer from Bush. There's no way he'd agree to this.

[Hep]

14. True, but

It would shut the other candidates up about it, namely Kucinich with his reprehensible antiDean website.

[MercutioATC]

19. Do you really think Kucinich is going to get any mileage from that site?

Hell, even the press isn't interested in it.

[Scott Lee]

23. And when Dean is limited to 45 mil to Bush's 100 million + ?

What then? A plea to Bush not to use all that dough?

[Syrinx]

3. Bush'll never agree to it in a million years

But Dean might have a little fun with it. But wait a minute, aren't we putting the cart before the horse. I mean, Dean doesn't have the nomination quite yet, does he?

[wryter2000]

7. Right

But he can challenge Bushwa to stay under the limit no matter who is our candidate. It's all hogwash, anyway, because Bush isn't going to do that. No freaking way.

[Hep]

8. cart before the horse

I think every democrat will agree to stay under the limit if Bush does, so I think that's a bit moot. But you're right, he has to be careful not to make it sound like he thinks he has the nomination already.

But this will shut people like kucinich up. People who think that if the D obeys, some great victory will be won for CFR.

[mandyky]

6. I'd love to see Rove's reaction

if Dean does this!! LOL

[truthspeaker]

16. why would Rove bother to react?

The press won't cover this, unless there's a blowjob involved.

[mrgorth]

9. Awesome! Just do it!(nt)

.

[DakotaDemocrat]

13. Not a bad idea at all...

...I was trying to find a way to differentiate the Dem candidate from Bush in so many ways. I felt like we were stooping down to their level by not taking matching funds and busting the caps, but this is really a great way to bust the caps while scoring points with those who think there is too much money in politics.

You can raise a bunch of money (cuz you know Bush will laugh at this suggestion) and paint him at the same time as a greedy man representing greedy people, not YOU...I need your support now to take on Bush money machine. You want money to control this government, vote Bush. If you want people to control this government, vote ________ (Sorry for hijacking the thread, I'm a Clarkie).

Will it be a given that the Dem candidate (regardless of who he or she is) would have enough financial support to forego matching funds? If so, all the candidates should do it...

[LoneStarLiberal]

15. It's the Third Party Money and Campaigns That Are the Problem

I applaud Dean if he does this, but it still doesn't address what will cause the most debilitating problems in the general election for whomever our nominee will be for President: Third party money.

Like '88, like 2000, it's not the Bush campaign that will be directly spending their money for things like Willie Horton ads, or media campaigns to push things like "I invented the internet:" It's all the stinking dirty PACs and leech groups who are allowed to run their trash with the tacit approval of the campaign in a manner where the campaign can always claim plausible deniability.

Ask John McCain about how good the Bush strategists are with stuff like this.

Unfortunately this is nominee-independent for us: No matter who wins the nomination, they will face this problem.

The problems with dirty campaigns aren't with deep coffers as much as they are with lax rules over third party advertisements and behavior. I don't want to shut these groups down because it is their right to run adverts, but I do believe we need to initiate some legislation to bind third party media campaigns to the campaigns themselves in order to make the people who benefit from these smear campaigns responsible for their conduct.

[Scott Lee]

17. Why do democrats keep shooting themselves in the foot?

Why not take the moral high ground and abide by the current system?

Uh, HELLO...Wake up, Democrats! what has "taking the moral high ground" in politics gotten you in the last several years?

'Nuff sed.

[MGKrebs]

18. Yup.

It's like this; the system is broken, but we're gonna operate as if the system were the way we WANT it to be, not the way it is, and hope that our opponent will fix the system after we lose.

Or, we could "use" the system too, and fix it when we win!

[Scott Lee]

22. Your last line should be Rule #1 in the DNC playbook

Well put. It's too bad I think the current DNC leadership would have a snowball's chance in hell of adopting it.

[Karmadillo]

21. I didn't hear Dean's statement. Did he do what he said he would?

Thanks.