John McCain - Campaign Finance Reform and Hypocracy

John McCain is running for president. No one doubts it and no one doubts his strength and the establishment's support for him in the Republican Party. However, the difference in his campaign strategy and tactics between 2000 and now are light years apart.

Note this Washington Post article. In 2000, McCain was the champion of reform - pushing for tough new campaign finance legislation to limit the influence of big donors on campaigns. It was a good bill, but it had plenty of holes (mainly allowing donors to bundle contributions).

Back in the early 1990s, McCain and four other Senators were caught helping a political contributor (who happened to own a failing savings and loan company) with federal regulators. So to improve his image, McCain starts his crusade to remove soft money and reform the campaign finance system: clearly a rational decision on his part.

Flip back to 2007 - McCain is running for president. He needs big money to do it and cannot count on the support of small contributors because he's no longer the reformer, but the establishment candidate of the GOP. What does he do? He taps some of the GOP's biggest fundraisers - former George W. supporters to raise him huge sums of money.

The problem? - When McCain needed a face lift, he became the reformer. But now he needs big money. John McCain is a shame. At one point, particularly after the 2000 election when he pushed the campaign finance law through the Senate, I had some respect for the man as someone who would speak out against his party. Now it's clear - McCain is a hypocrite, and in my opinion, scarier than George W. Bush.