Obama to Forgo Public Funds for Election Campaign

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Thursday he has decided to forgo public financing of his election campaign against Republican John McCain.

The decision frees him up to collect money privately, which could be a help to him strategically ahead of November's election.

During the Democratic primary contest to pick his party's candidate, Obama smashed records for fund-raising, largely on the success he achieved in raising money over the Internet.

Barack Obama on Thursday became the first American presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to rely solely on private money to sustain his White House bid when he declared that he would opt out of the Watergate-era public financing system.

Mr Obama’s decision, which he announced to supporters in a webcast, was met with strong criticism from John McCain, his Republican opponent who will rely on the $84m in public funds that are available, and also from centre-left reformers who said they felt bitterly betrayed by his move.

Sen. Barack Obama has switched course on general-election funding, announcing this morning that he would reject public financing and raise every dime for the fall campaign on his own.

The announcement was widely expected. For months, Obama has eased back from an earlier pledge to "pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election," warning that it could impose unfair constraints.

Obama officials said they decided to take that route because McCain is already spending privately raised funds toward the general election campaign.

"It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections," Obama said in a video message e-mailed to supporters. "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."

"the people who built this movement from the bottom up" -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, announced this morning that he will not enter into the public financing system, despite a previous pledge to do so.

"We've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election," Obama says in the video, blaming it on the need to combat Republicans, saying "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."