John McCain Has An Exit Strategy

Not from Iraq, sad to say. But from the public financing system for his presidential campaign.

Last week I noted a Politico story contending that for McCain "it could be tougher getting out than it was getting in" to the voluntary system of public financing for his primary campaign. While most of the major candidates other than John Edwards opted out of the system this year, because accepting public financing would have meant agreeing to a $50 million spending limit in the primaries, a desperate McCain last fall decided to take the public money, and $5.5 million has been certified in his name, but he hasn't seen the cash yet. Now that he's the front-runner, he would be infinitely better off refusing the public money, in order to ignore the spending limits, which he is approaching or has already hit.