This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, November 4th, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Barack Obama has already a spotty record in abiding by some of the campaign restrictions that he himself

endorses. How would a president Obama act on campaign finance reform? And on

free political speech would an Obama presidency and a stronger Democratic Congress bring with it a resurgence of the

fairness doctrine on radio and TV airwaves?

John Samples, Director of the Cato Institute's Project on Representative Government comments.

Well, Obama has promised at various points during the campaign to bring about more campaign finance regulations.

He's an ardent campaign finance reformer.

So he's promised that.

However, the circumstances don't suggest that he's going to do much on that. The Democratic Party in Congress now knows that the Democratic Party in Congress

now knows that the Democratic Party in general has a substantial fundraising advantage

and in the past these regulations have generally been aimed at trying to stop

Republican advantages. So if you have an advantage in running for congressional office and so on, and you're the

majority party.

It's not likely you're going to do much.

There's a presidential system which has some subsidies for candidates.

Obama was the first candidate ever to not use public money in the fall campaign.

So it seems unlikely that he will turn on that experience and try to get a revised campaign finance

system for the presidential elections which would after all, spending tax money on campaigns at a time

when tax money is going to be in short supply.

He's going to want to spend money elsewhere I think on more popular

...