...Long live public financing! The New York Times and other papers have been all over the news the Hillary Clinton will be forgoing public financing in her run for the White House in 2008 - to that our president and CEO Nick Nyhart writes, in his letter to the Times (third one down): good, the system is broken anyway, let's take this opportunity to scrap it in favor of Clean Elections-style full public financing of campaigns.  The full text of the letter as published is as follows:  To the Editor:The best hope for the public campaign financing is that leading presidential candidates pledge to upgrade the antiquated system if elected and then walk away, fast, from the current model, which is incapable of producing the 2008 winner.A redesigned system should dramatically expand the leverage of small-dollar donors within the system and substantially increase the amount of public money available to qualified presidential candidates.Under full public financing, known as “Clean Elections,” the gathered power of ordinary citizens puts candidates who give up large private donations on a level playing field with opponents financed by deep-pocketed individuals and interests.With the biggest corruption scandal to hit Washington since Watergate still in the news, it is vital that we end our dependence on vested-interest financing.Nick NyhartPresident and C.E.O.Public CampaignWashington, Jan. 23, 2007 Public financing of the presidential race served for many years as a vital and useful reform, but like anything it needs an upgrade from time to time. That time has come, and full public financing is the next step we need to take to allow those who seek the highest office in the country to do so without indebting themselves to wealthy special interests to bankroll multi-million dollar campaigns.