Obama's Campaign Financing: The Real Problem

Everyone -- including McCain -- is missing the real problem with Obama's decision to forgo public campaign financing.

The incredible amount of money Obama has raised has proven that campaign finance reform is pointless at the presidential level.

By 2012, Republicans will surely copy Obama's fund-raising recipe for success and raise funds privately. Because private contributions are difficult to audit -- especially when made online -- the chance of fraud and manipulation will increase. 

When watchdog groups start to complain about the lack of transparency when it comes to such private contributions, Republicans will point to Obama's refusal to disclose similar information in 2008.

And that is the real problem: If Republicans begin trying to duplicate Obama's success and end up raising gobs of cash, Obama and the Democrats will have no argument to stop it.