OSHKOSH, WIS. — Reflecting his recent string of victories in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama was jabbed Friday by his political rivals in both major parties and in a new television ad playing in Wisconsin.
The presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, tried to put the Illinois senator on the spot about whether he would accept public financing for the November election -- an act that would drastically curtail campaign spending.
McCain, an advocate of political finance reform whose campaign nearly went broke last summer, told reporters here that Obama agreed last year to accept public financing.
"It was very clear to me that Sen. Obama had agreed to having public financing of the general election campaign if I did the same thing," McCain said. "I expect Sen. Obama to keep his word to the American people."
McCain suggested his campaign would accept public funds -- which would limit his spending to about $85 million from the Republican convention in early September through election day -- only if the Democratic nominee does. He recently sent letters to the Federal Election Commission and the Treasury Department opting out of the public funding for the primaries.
McCain senior advisor Mark Salter sidestepped speculation that McCain might be mainly concerned with Obama's unprecedented fundraising prowess.
"The campaign is concerned that the self-proclaimed tribune of the 'new politics' doesn't start off the general-election campaign by breaking his word to the American people," Salter said.
Obama, speaking to reporters earlier in Milwaukee, dismissed the debate over financing as premature.
"If I am the nominee, I will make sure our people talk to John McCain's people to find out if we are willing to abide by the same rules and regulations," Obama said. "It would be presumptuous of me to start saying now that I am locking into something when I don't even know if the other side will agree to it. And I'm not the nominee yet."
Meanwhile, his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, released an ad, called "Deserved," in which she criticizes Obama again for not agreeing to a Wisconsin debate before Tuesday's primary.
