Sen. Barack Obama, who pledged to accept public financing if he became the Democratic nominee, has changed his mind after deciding he can make more money on his own.

No major-party candidate has turned down public financing since the system took effect in 1976.

His advisers seem to believe this is a "one-day" story and that everybody will forget this broken promise in the next news cycle.

Other stories the Obama campaign would like to go away are any which involve criticism of Michelle Obama.

Mrs. Obama is currently working to soften her image with appearances on shows like "The View" where she was compared to Jacqueline Kennedy in terms of her youth and her style. Then there's the cover story in Us magazine, billed as "the full untold story of why Barack loves Michelle."

Since he became the nominee, Sen. Obama has spent much time bemoaning the amount of negative attention being paid to his wife, saying candidates' families should be off-limits.

This is a change from the Democratic primary when the Obama campaign spent nearly as much time running against former Pres. Bill Clinton as against the actual candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

There will be those who say that was fair because Bill Clinton is a public figure but even Chelsea Clinton was the subject of negative comments from people like NBC's David Shuster who said she was being "pimped out" by her mother's campaign.

Wives of candidates have been targets of criticism throughout the history of the United States, going back to Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel, in the 1820s.

Few were raked over the coals more than Hillary Clinton when her husband was running for the presidency. Her comment that she was not one to have "stayed home and baked cookies" was taken as an insult to stay-at-home mothers. To me, that remark pales in comparison to Michelle Obama's statement in February, which she repeated in two speeches, that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country."

If a candidate's spouse chooses to campaign, as Mrs. Obama has done, he or she should be prepared to come under scrutiny. If the Obamas are not ready for this, perhaps they should have chosen a different line of work.

Bilhelm, if the Obama campaign follows your advice and writes off, as you seem to suggest in your previous posts, Hillary supporters, "namby-pamby Obama supporters" and "uneducated blue collar rural White voters," that certainly is a shrinking Democratic base for the senator to count on.

I would have hoped that instead of responding as you did to my letter, you might have explained to me the errors in what I said.

But I suppose you don't want to waste your time trying to win over one of the 18 million people who voted for the person you repeatedly describe as "The Wicked Witch"

TO ALEC'S MOM: I do follow the polls although they often change from week to week. It's a long time from June to November and many people whose candidates were defeated are waiting to decide who to vote for by watching and listening to both Sens. Obama and McCain and seeing how their policies evolve.

Perhaps because I am a Democrat, I am less aware of strife that exists among Republicans. But this site along with the Huffington Post make evident the rancor which remains between many supporters of Sen. Obama and those who preferred Sen. Clinton. There are unkind things being said by both groups when what is needed are frank but civil discussions.

If I have been unfair in my comments about the Obama campaign, I am open to hearing other points of view. That's especially true when they are expressed with more respect and less vitriol than some of the nasty responses I've gotten after I've posted letters favoring Clinton or questioning Obama. (I am not referring to your post.)

Having never voted for a Republican for president, I would find it difficult to cast my ballot for Sen. John McCain. And having never missed an election, I won't be sitting this one out when the country's future is at stake.

But it doesn't make me more favorably inclined to Sen. Obama when I read comments describing the candidate I supported as "The Wicked Witch" or when I'm told Hillary's backers have no right to call themselves Democrats. It's not un-Democratic to ask questions about a candidate.

Thank you, Alec's mom, for your response. I agree that there are a lot of flaws in the financing system.

I'm sure that Sen. Obama opted out because his fundraising has been so successful and that McCain opted in because the Republicans are having much less success raising money and also to stick it to Obama.

I just wish Sen. Obama hadn't pledged that he would go with public financing, that's the sort of thing that looks like a typical politician who says one thing and then does another.

I've been voting for many years, too. Nothing in my experience approached the ugliness of the 2000 campaign and its aftermath. How many lives might have been saved if the Supreme Court hadn't stopped the ballot recount in FLA and in effect stolen the election from Al Gore? That left me with a lingering bitterness (yes, I'm using the "B" word about myself) about our election process, a process in which I had previously always thought that every vote counted

nkennedy, calling me an inane flipflopper in the first sentence of your post really made me want to read the rest of your response.

But thank you to those who have taken the time to seriously discuss the campaign financing topic with me, I appreciate it

If I were Muslim, I would be very insulted by the fact that this rumor is being treated as though being called a member of their religion is the most terrible thing that can be said about a person.