Let us end the long-running campaign finance tug-of-war

There seems to be a constant campaign finance reform tug-of-war, between reformers, and opponents who argue for free speech. Sometimes the reformers have things going their way, sometimes it's their opponents. Presently, free speechers can produce special interest attack ads thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision.

Now, the presidential candidates declare they are for campaign finance reform, whether they practice it fully or not. For instance, Barack Obama likes to share the high number of small private donations to his campaign; and yet, he has already received $1.5 million of support from higher education special interests.

There is, however, a better solution to this tug-of-war, and that is public financing of campaigns. This idea is spreading across America in the individual states; Maine and Arizona are examples of successful public financing; there is also the Fair Elections Now Act moving through the Senate. This is a practical, non-ideological consideration that of course involves candidates from all parts of the political spectrum. Having a clean system in place consistently relieves all candidates from asking for campaign donations and allows them to focus on all of the voters.