In an interview with Fox News Sunday, discussed here in The Hill, Sen. Barack Obama addressed the thorny issue of taking public financing for the general election if he is the Democratic presidential nominee. He attempted to clarify his position, saying he'd like to take public financing and keep the system alive, but was worried about independent expenditures.

Given the success of his fundraising operation many speculate that Obama would not take public financing in the general election, and he has not yet said what he plans to do:

“I would be very interested in pursuing public financing, because I think not every candidate is going to be able to do what I've done in this campaign, and I think it's important to think about future campaigns,” Obama said on Fox News Sunday.

However, the Illinois senator stressed that the issue of outside expenditures would need to be addressed before he would agree to use public funding, which very likely would leave him with significantly less money than if he were to opt out.

It looks very likely that Sen. John McCain will be opting in to the partial public financing system for the general election. Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn't indicated that she would opt in to the system in the general election should she win the nomination.