The only change we have seen recently from the Obama campaign is the changing of his mind. Last month we witnessed Obama tell one audience that Iran does not pose a serious threat to us, while telling another audience the next day that pose a grave threat to us. Today Obama has changed his mind on public financing claiming the public financing system is ‘broken’.

We’ve made the decision not to participate in the public-financing system for the general election. This means we’ll be forgoing more than $80 million in public funds during the final months of this election.

It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. 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. 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.

When he speaks of smears and attacks from 527 groups, somehow I doubt he is referring to Moveon.org which is notorious for exactly that… but I digress.

Last year as the primary process was just beginning Senator Obama had a completely different opinion of the public financing system:

But Mr. Obama, campaigning on pledges to clean up politics, argued in his filing with the commission that the public financing system had insulated candidates from a corrupting dependence on big donors. He asserted that the system could be preserved for the general election through bipartisan agreement if party nominees returned early contributions.

Last year Obama argued that public financing insulated candidates from corruption, meanwhile this year he claims the system is broken. What has changed Senator?

Just to be clear, I am not advocating that Senator Obama accept public financing, he would be a fool to do so considering the amount of money his campaign has been able to raise. I am merely pointing out the hypocrisy of his two statements. Had Obama declared he was opting out of public financing because he received much more support from the American people than he had initially anticipated, I could have respected that because at least he would be speaking honestly. To respond with this nonsense about 527 groups and smear tactics as his reasoning is a slap in the face to anyone who believed that Obama was actually going to be a “different kind of politician”.

While the faces may change, politics remains the same.

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Barack Obama, Election 2008, Features, Politics, Video