Free Republic

INDIANAPOLIS - The nation's system of public financing presidential elections is "creaky" and needs to be updated, Sen. Barack Obama said Friday, offering another possible argument for bypassing the three-decades-old system that has helped pay campaigns for the White House. Obama, who has raised a whopping $234 million from about 1.3 million donors, said the limited amounts of money available from the federal treasury for presidential campaigns pose difficult choices for candidates raising large sums. "I think that it is creaky," he said of the program financed by $3 dollar checkoffs in tax returns. "The amount of money raised through...

I suppose there are lots of benefits to turning sixty-two, but from this side of the calendar, I am having a hard time seeing them. There are a few perks for "seniors," like discounts in some restaurants and sometimes on airline tickets or hotels. But most of the consequences of age are negative, and it's hard to accept them without a little cynicism if not outright anger. For one thing, the plant starts to break down around age 55, no matter what you do to keep it humming a precision tune. Here's a test: Sit on the floor. Now, get...