In 2008, Barack Obama became the first major candidate to opt out of the public-financing system set up to fund presidential campaigns, gambling that he would be able to raise more money outside of it. His opponent, John McCain, was a big proponent of campaign finance reform, having written the “McCain-Feingold” law that banned soft-money donations from national political parties to candidates. McCain kept to public-financing limits, spending only $84 million, while Obama was limited only by how much money he could raise. McCain was vastly outraised and outspent, aiding Obama’s landmark victory.
Supporters of Obama’s choice said that it helped “democratize” spending, enabling more small-dollar donors to support his candidacy. McCain, meanwhile, faced blowback for his decision from his own party. In a campaign postmortem, Karl Rove wrote for The Wall Street Journal editorial pages that “Mr. Obama’s victory marks the death of the campaign finance system … No presidential candidate will ever take public financing in the general election again and risk being outspent as badly as Mr. McCain was this year.”
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