A while ago, I suggested that real 'campaign finance reform' would restrict spending extra time the way we already restrict spending extra money.
Today's Wall Street Journal mentions that:
More good publicity came last week when talk-show host Oprah Winfrey committed to campaign for him for two days in Iowa as well as New Hampshire and South Carolina.
How much would Mitt Romney or John Edwards pay for this? $100,000? $200,000? Would they pay less than the McCain-Feingold-mandated maximum per-person donation for Oprah's services, if they were bidding against one another? If the answer is 'no', it's obvious that Oprah is violating the spirit of McCain-Feingold. She is essentially laundering her vast wealth and selling her celebrity by taking a break from her job to tell her fans whom to vote for. If the point of McCain-Feingold was to reduce the influence of powerful people on politics, why did they leave such a gaping loophole?