"Words" Come Back to Haunt

"Talk is cheap" is an old cliche and remains particularly true when it comes to politics. Earlier in this campaign, in one of Barack Obama's most articulate moments, he told an audience "don't tell me words don't matter." From there he spoke of great speeches in history that led to the expansion of civil liberties. Sadly, the speech seems to be a plagiarism of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, but I will save that for another post.

Sadder still, and the focus of this post, is that "Words" don't seem to matter to Barack Obama, according to a new commercial being generated by the John McCain campaign. Obama has been an early supporter of campaign finance "reform" and is a huge proponent of the public financing of campaigns. For months and early on in his campaign, Obama indicated that he was moving in the direction of public financing. Once he proved himself to be a master fundraiser, the idea of campaigning on the dole has been discarded.

Obama has been promising voters that he would meet with Senator McCain and discuss finance reform and how it would be practically applied to this campaign. That isn't going to happen. That is why the McCain campaign has put together a campaign video taking Obama to task.

I, personally have no problem, with Obama not getting dollars from the government to get elected. In fact, I commend him. I have serious problems with candidates who are critical of the welfare state for the poor, but get up to $80 million in government hand outs to get elected President. Such a system is nothing short of immoral. However, Obama has always endorsed this system and has been very critical of the influence of money on politics. Furthermore, he has promised to meet with McCain on the subject and now won't do it. This is pure hypocrisy.

This is just one of the many areas that politicians need accountability. Really, neither Obama or McCain should get a pass. The biggest issue in 2008 is integrity, which is difficult to find in politics today.

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Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.