Skip Navigation
Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder - Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. More

Marc Ambinder is the White House correspondent for National Journal. He previously served as the politics editor, and is now a contributing editor, for The Atlantic, where he curated the influential Politics channel on TheAtlantic.com and contributed to the magazine. He was also a chief political consultant to CBS News. Earlier, at NJ's Hotline, Ambinder was the founding editor of "Hotline On Call," a pathbreaking political news blog. He also worked as a producer and reporter for the ABC News Political Unit and was one of the founders of ABC's "The Note." Born in New York City, raised in Central Florida, Ambinder is a 2001 graduate of Harvard and lives in Washington, D.C.

Obama Opts Out

By Marc Ambinder
Jun 19 2008, 9:03 AM ET Comment

As expected, Barack Obama has decided to opt out of the public financing system for the general election, declaring his "independence" in a video he sent to supporters this morning.

It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. 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. John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.


Obama will NOT ask his supporters to cap their donations, an idea that had been floated by some campaign advisers. That would have been too risky, apparently.

The McCain campaign will point out that Obama went back on his word, and Obama will point to his millions of individual donors.

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Aretha Franklin's Platinum Year Aretha Franklin's Platinum Year
The Youthful Magic of 'Moonrise Kingdom' The Youthful Magic of 'Moonrise Kingdom'
Why Are Democrats Losing the Wisconsin Recall? Why Are Democrats Losing in Wisconsin?
The Pathbreaking Flight of SpaceX's Dragon Capsule, by the Numbers SpaceX Dragon's Pathbreaking Flight, by the Numbers
The End of Serena Williams The End of Serena Williams

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Afghanistan: May 2012

Jun 1, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

Marc Ambinder
from the Magazine

The Ally From Hell

Pakistan lies. It hosted Osama bin Laden (knowingly or not). Its government is barely functional.…