Obama's spending promise hems him in

[Gunny]

By David D. Kirkpatrick and Jeff Zeleny
The New York Times
updated 11:01 p.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 27, 2008

Just 12 months ago, Senator Barack Obama presented himself as an idealistic upstart taking on the Democratic fund-raising juggernaut behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That was when Mr. Obama proposed a novel challenge aimed at limiting the corrupting influence of money on the race: If he won the nomination, he would limit himself to spending only the $85 million available in public financing between the convention and Election Day as long as his Republican opponent did the same.

Now his challenge to his rivals has boomeranged into a test of Mr. Obama’s own ability to balance principle and politics in a very different context. After taking in $100 million in donations, Mr. Obama is the one setting fund-raising records, presenting a powerful temptation to find a way out of his own proposal so that he might outspend his Republican opponent. And the all-but-certain Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, is short on cash and eager to take up the fund-raising truce.

more ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23378039/

A bullshit test right up front and in the open. He's either going to be as good as his promise, or we'll see him dancing and squirming his way out.