The Edwards Decision To Go the Public Funding Route is Not a Good Sign for His Campaign

    John Edwards announced yesterday that his campaign will go the public funding route, following  an identical step by John McCain earlier in the summer. It's not a good sign. Edwards is attempting to portray this as a principled stand against the flood of money in politics. But that explanation is unlikely to fly because it raises the question why it took Edwards this long in the campaign to realize the evils of big money.
    The likelier explanation is that Edwards is having trouble raising money to compete with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Fair enough -- almost anyone would. And this move will likely give him a needed infusion of cash for the early states. But by doing this, Edwards is going to run up against spending caps in later individual states and will have great trouble, even if he's successful in the early states, sustaining major efforts down the line.
    The real problem with his announcement is that it is likely to be read by Iowa supporters and unions who might have endorsed him as a sign his campaign is in trouble. And they may well begin to drift away.
    Edwards already has a reputation as being a bit two-faced -- he's for the poor but he gets fancy haircuts and lives in a mansion. Trying to sell this latest move as based on principle (which McCain never did) is likely, alas, to cement that reputation.