FIRST PUBLIC FUNDING, NOW A 527 FLIP-FLOP:

There’s been a spurt of 527 activity on behalf of Sen. John McCain, but Barack Obama campaign has suddenly gone silent on the subject.

That’s because, after a year of telling donors not to contribute to 527 groups, of encouraging strategists not to form them and of suggesting that outside messaging efforts would not be welcome in Obama’s Democratic Party, Obama’s strategists have changed their approach.

An Obama adviser privy to the campaign’s internal thinking on the matter says that,with less than two months before the election and with the realization that Republicans have achieved financial parity with Democrats, they hope that Democratic allies — what another campaign aide termed “the cavalry” — will come to Obama’s aid. . . . The money is there. The top two 527s — the Service Employees International Union and America Votes — are liberal in orientation.

Meet the new politics, same as the old politics. Plus, what do Obama’s campaign troubles say about his executive ability?