Barack Obama is looking at opting out of the public financing system for the general election, as he already has in the primaries.

I think that this is a good idea. He’s out raising John McCain to a degree that boggles the mind, but his argument, that because he is raising so much in small dollar donations, he is basically sticking to the spirit of the law, is asinine.

There are a number of reasons that this is stupid. The first is that it’s hair splitting that will have people bringing up his “pledge” on public financing, and the second is that he is missing a line of attack that is useful.

His pledge was not to go onto public financing, it was to enter into negotiations with the Republican nominee on a “fund raising truce”.

What he should have said was, “I would like to negotiate with John McCain about a fund raising truce in good faith, but I find no good faith on his side. John McCain illegally withdrew from the public financing system that he sponsored, and has been committing an ongoing felony since then, using the inability of the FEC to make quorum as a dishonorable cover for his law breaking.”

John McCain and his campaign staff are knowingly committing a felony right now. That’s a fact, and they know it, because John McCain was the guy who wrote the law.