John McCain and The Battle Against Free Speech

George Will reports:

John McCain's undeclared but ubiquitous presidential campaign will produce a delicious moment when he announces, as he surely will, that he will not participate in the public funding system for presidential primaries. And if he is nominated, he and his Democratic opponent probably will be the first nominees since 1972 to rely on private money in the general election campaign.

There are two compounded ironies. First, the mantra of campaign "reformers" is that there is "too much" money in politics. But McCain will shun public funding because it provides too little money. He can raise much more from private interests. (But not from "special interests," which are interests McCain disapproves of.) Second, the reformers revere the McCain-Feingold legislation that expanded government regulation of the quantity, timing and content of political speech. But McCain-Feingold is one important reason why the public funding system is collapsing.

To those who think McCain is going to have an easy time in the Repubican primaries: guess again.