Faith Bremner of Oregon's Statesmen Journal talks with Michael Malbin about the presidential public financing program: it's flaws, potential fixes, and why the public seems to know less and less about how it works with each passing year. Did you mark the check-off on your tax return this year?

Malbin reminds readers of the important role the system plays and how it's influenced the electoral process since its implementation:

It has enabled candidates to focus on the race and it's given candidates enough money in the general election campaign to run without having to go out and pitch for dollars. A very, very important role that it has played and can continue to play, it can provide an important start-up in primaries, it can help boost campaigns to make sure that somebody besides the front-runner is being heard. ... I mean Ronald Reagan in 1976, George H.W. Bush in 1980, Gary Hart in 1984, Jesse Jackson in 1988, even Jimmy Carter in 1976, John McCain in 2000, John Edwards in 2004. Every single one of them was down to almost no money in January, facing a front-runner who had many, many times the amount of money they had. But they were able to remain viable candidates at least until the first primary or two because they got federal funds.