Follow the money

Out of the blue, way down at the bottom of this story about Hillary's dire financial straits is this paragraph:

The report also shows [John McCain] gave back nearly $3 million from donors for his general election campaign. This move could indicate he is setting the stage to receive public financing for his campaign — an option that will infuse the Arizona senator with $84 million.

Uh, knock, knock. CNN? This is a much bigger story, since Hill has $23 million banked for the general, in case she pulls a Rocky. (Aside: Oh, crap, I missed this in my prediction item. I'd bet hard money that Rocky is in Hill's victory speech.)

McCain taking public financing would be shocking. The only way he could possibly go up against the fundraising juggernaut that Obama is would be if the RNC and the 527s already have a plan in place to do non-coordination coordination. The plan would be:

• Take the public money (since McCain's own fundraising is anemic by current standards)
• Squelch the FEC issues, which would otherwise be perpetual since the FEC can't decide anything without the quorum it won't get
• Call this a stand for conscience
• Let others do the dirty work
• Say "I approve this message" only for positives

Want to know whether this is the plan instead of my speculation? Watch what happens to the refunded contributions.