See this Washington Post column. It concludes: “There is fitting irony in the fact that if McCain’s campaign continues until the delegate selection process begins, he probably will have to accept federal matching funds and the absurd strings attached to them, stipulating the maximum amounts that can be spent in particular states. That would be condign punishment for the man who has dragged politics –the process by which the state is staffed and controlled — deep into the ambit of the regulatory state.”