For a candidate that preaches so much about “changing Washington” Barack Obama has proved himself once again to be just another Washington politician. One of the most fundamental reforms he talks about is ridding the system of lobbyists and special interests. He and John McCain both support restrictions on political speech in the form of campaign finance laws.

For the record I think they are both wrong for supporting an unconstitutional measure to restrict free speech. But what makes it worse for Obama is that he is also a hypocrite. At least McCain is going to take public financing this election year. But Obama announced this week that he would forgo public financing and instead rely upon private donations to fund his campaign. The reason? He blames it on 527′s and other “outside groups” that will be running ads and educating the public from their point of view. But as The New York Times and The Politico have pointed out, there is no real presence on the right that is ready to attack Obama through a massive ad campaign. He just needs to place the blame on someone else while deflecting criticism away from his own hypocrisy. Even The Washington Post agrees that Obama’s excuse for not taking public financing like he promised is ridiculous.

So much for the politics of “change.” Obama is just another politician. For someone running on a platform of fundamentally reforming the system, Obama sure seems to be comfortable saying one thing while doing another.