Obama takes 15-point lead over McCain

Despite the threats that Hillary's supporters would desert him in droves, and that many Americans simply weren't ready to elect a black president, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain yesterday stretched itself to a clear fifteen points with Obama on 51% and McCain on a mere 36%.

The latest opinion poll, for Newsweek magazine, was the first to show Mr Obama pulling ahead since he wrapped up the nomination fight against Hillary Clinton, ending months of damaging internecine rivalry and winning her endorsement. And the results showed that former Clinton supporters were quickly rallying to the Obama campaign, helping bolster his solid support among younger voters and independents.

And the lead Obama has is allowing him to campaign in areas usually thought of as Republican, adding to the hope that Obama is campaigning for a landslide.

The Obama campaign is preparing this week to send paid workers into states where Democratic party candidates have not previously been competitive, expanding the political battleground in November and drawing in millions of first-time voters through voter-registration drives.

Of course, it's notable that the McCain team continue to harp on about Obama's decision not to pursue public financing for his campaign, as if Obama has committed some terrible crime by refusing to be tied to the $87 million this method would allow him and opting instead to use the almost $300 million that many think his campaign will raise.

Senator McCain described Mr Obama's U-turn as "a big deal" that would allow them to pin charges of political expediency on a candidate who has promised to clean up politics. Mr Obama said 1.4 million people had contributed money to his campaign, mostly in small donations, meaning he could not be manipulated by special interests.

Leaving aside the ludicrous aspect of McCain, of all people, taking the high ground on the subject of public funding of elections. He's been yanking the Federal Election Commission around on this for so long that they've had to write to him stating:

"The Commission made clear that a candidate enters into a binding contract with the Commission when he executes the Candidate Agreements and Certification," Mason wrote. "The Commission stated that it would withdraw a candidate's certifications upon written request, thus agreeing to rescind the contract, so long as the candidate: 1) had not received Matching Payment Program funds, and 2) had not pledged the certification of Matching Payment Program funds as 'security for private financing.'"

The DNC have now filed a lawsuit against the FEC to examine whether McCain's actions here have been legal.

"He used the matching funds to get the money when he needed it," said DNC counsel Joe Sandler. "That's the reality of what happened here."

But all of this is actually beside the point. It is not illegal for Obama to opt out and to use funds raised on the Internet to finance his campaign. The McCain camp's greatest objection to this appears to be that "it's not fair" that Obama is more popular than McCain as that gives him a financial advantage.

No, the "fair" thing for Obama to do would be to give up every area where he has an advantage so that there can be what team McCain would call a level playing field.

How dare he be so popular and use his popularity against McCain? What a cheat, eh? I expect Obama's fifteen point lead to be reversed as soon as people catch on to this obvious skulduggery.

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Tags: Obama, McCain, 15 point lead, public funding, US election 2008