Obama and Public Financing

The stories about Obama's accepting or not accepting public funding have been all over the political blogs the last two days. However, it turns out that Obama has not officially opted out. He has made a request to the FEC to see if he can keep his options open.

This from Ben Smith:

The request lays out the following scenario: Obama's campaign would accept contributions for both the primary and general elections, but then return the general election contributions later if the Republican nominee agreed to accept public financing. The public financing system provides taxpayer dollars to candidates who abide by restrictions on how much they can raise.

It is a smart move, consistent with his theme of unity and public fairness. He is saying that if he wins the primary, he will accept public financing on the condition that his Republican rival does the same. It would be crazy to accept public financing against an opponent that is raising money hand over fist. Your rival would drown out your message in ad time.
This shows that Obama's campaign is on thier toes and thinking ahead. Good.