Obama opts out of public funding

[sandance2]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he'll byp*** the federal public financing system in the general election, abandoning an earlier commitment to take the money if his Republican rival did as well. Obama, who set records raising money in the primary election, will forgo more than $84 million that would have been available to him in the general election. He would be the first candidate to do so since Congress p***ed 1970s post-Watergate campaign finance laws. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee in waiting, has taken steps to accept the public funds in the general election. "It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections," Obama told supporters in a video message Thursday. "But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."