Research Fellow John C. Fortier

With seeming effortlessness, Barack Obama's presidential campaign raises gobs of money each day and has put the fear of God into Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But if Obama wins the nomination, his well-oiled money-raising machine may go dormant, leveling the money playing field with John McCain.

This is due to Obama's year-old promise to take public funding in the general election as long as his Republican rival does the same.

One year ago, Obama was a promising candidate, a cult figure from his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, but at best a second- or third-place finisher for the Democratic nomination.

He was starting to see in his own internal numbers that he was good at raising money, but no one expected him to come close to Clinton's fundraising prowess, never mind match her dollar for dollar through the whole year.

It was at this point that Obama made an unusual request of the Federal Election Commission and offered a deal that he would limit his own fundraising if his opponent would as well.

Both the request and the deal revolved around the presidential public financing system.

For the general election, the candidates can receive a lump sum of federal dollars (projected to be about $85 million for each candidate in 2008) if they agree not to raise private funds.

Since 1976, when the current presidential financing system was first employed, no candidate has rejected these funds, in part because it is hard to raise more private money than the public money offered.

But early in 2007, there was speculation that at least Clinton might not accept the general election funding because she could raise more in private funds.

With this background, Obama proposed to the FEC that he would raise money for both the primaries and for the general election, but he would keep the money in separate accounts.

And he would give back this privately raised general election money if he did not get the nomination or if he decided to take the public funding.

At the same time, Obama made a public offer that he would take the public financing in the general election as long as his Republican adversary did as well.

The FEC ruled in Obama's favor, and now he and Clinton have raised significant funds for the general, as well as the primary, election.

Various estimates have Clinton raising somewhere in excess of $15 million in general election funds and Obama raising close to $5 million.

As for the deal, only McCain took Obama up on it--and enthusiastically. At the time, McCain still believed that he would raise huge sums of money.

But his background as a campaign reformer inclined him toward taking the public financing.

That means in an Obama-McCain matchup, the candidates would have equal amounts of money to spend when the final campaign push begins just after Labor Day.

A quick look at Obama's fundraising numbers shows how much money he will be giving up if he keeps his pledge to take public financing.

Obama raised just about $100 million in primary funds in 2007. His campaign reports that he has been raising more than $1 million per day since Jan. 1, 2008.

He would also likely get additional support from Clinton donors if he clinches the nomination.

With that kind of fundraising appeal, Obama could reasonably raise at least another $125 million to $150 million for the general election if he were to forgo public financing.

But with the pledge, Obama and McCain will both have about $85 million in public funds to spend this fall.

The Obama pledge to take public funds is ironic on several levels. When he made the pledge, Obama was the poor candidate, and McCain was the one planning to raise record amounts.

In recent days, Obama has been outdistancing Clinton's fundraising totals, but she is not committed to taking public funding for the fall campaign.

She would likely be able to outspend McCain's public money with her private funds, while Obama would not.

Finally, to all of those Republicans who chastised McCain for his support of campaign finance reform: You should be thanking your lucky stars that your nominee may be competitive in the money game because of that support.

John Fortier is a research fellow at AEI.