Arizona Senator John McCain filed a report today showing that his campaign has $11.6 million in the bank.  This is still significantly less than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have been locked in an extremely competitive primary.  There has been some discussion about McCain accepting public funds, a step which might prevent having to deal with quite so many of the heavily-demonized donors and lobbyists and also jive with McCain’s preference towards campaign finance reform.  However, it may also rankle free-market conservatives who constitute a significant portion of the base.  McCain may have a decent chance of selling conservatives on the idea if he starts early.