President Obama's reversal on his decision to keep hands off the fundraising efforts of his campaign-aligned Super PACs raised a few eyebrows among campaign finance reform advocates. This seemed like a betrayal of Obama's oft-stated position that the relentless chase and dependence on fat cat donors to bankroll campaigns has gone way off the deep end. In 2008, Obama's said that he'd raise the bulk of his campaign funds from almost literally the nickels and dimes of small donors. That he would not take a penny from lobbyist groups and that he would back an overhaul of the campaign financing rules.
Obama's sharp attack on the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that virtually gave free license to corporations to dump money directly into partisan campaigns was cheered by campaign finance reform advocates. This renewed hope and the expectation that Obama would push Democrats to enact proposed legislation to blunt the court's decision and restore checks on corporations and the financial industry's power to sway elections. So far that legislation has gotten nowhere in Congress. But Obama's reversal on Super PACs is not a betrayal of principle. It is a reflection of the brutal reality that to run and keep the White House, it will cost a pretty penny. There were two glaring things that again drove that brutal reality home to the White House.
The GOP has rebounded from its anemic fundraising takes in 2008 and has drawn almost dead even with the Democrats in fundraising. A huge chunk of the money is coming from its corporate-dominated Super PACs. The other thing is Mitt Romney. He will likely be the GOP presidential nominee and is every bit the cash fundraising cow that Obama is. According to recent reports, nearly 60 corporations and individuals dumped more than $100,000 in a Super PAC backing Romney. Typical of the hard money pouring in is Bain Capital, Romney's old outfit. According to the Center for Public Integrity, current and former Bain executives and their relatives have shoved nearly $5 million to organizations that back Romney's presidential bid.
He's also banked tens of thousands of dollars from Walmart's Walton family members, and Koch family members. The heavy-duty cash has poured in just to help Romney get the GOP nomination. It takes little imagination to figure that once he bags the nomination, the corporate and financial industry donors will radically up the ante for him.
The ideal is to make public financing the rule and the law for federal elections. In a perfect world, that would be the case and big money would not obscenely skew the election process toward those who can essentially pay the most for it. But the Supreme Court decision effectively killed that ideal. This ensured that neither Obama, nor any other presidential candidate, can be competitive in a hard-fought primary and even harder fought general election campaign without the tens of millions that lobbyists, PACs, corporations, Wall Street, and labor unions shove into a presidential candidate's campaign coffers. The 2008 presidential primary and general election was the ultimate proof. Hillary Clinton was the near consensus early odds-on favorite to bag the Democratic nomination. Her failure had nothing to do with campaign bumbles, policy stumbles, or voter rejection. She simply ran out of money to be competitive with Obama in the smaller state primaries. That enabled Obama to rack up what ultimately proved to be an insurmountable delegate lead. It was the same in the general election. Obama had a bulging campaign chest. Republican presidential foe John McCain didn't. It was the financial head of stem that Obama had built up coming out of the primary battle with Clinton that made the difference for Obama in being able to saturate the airwaves with his campaign pledges and assaults on McCain. None of this came cheap.
The 2012 campaign will not be a rerun of 2008. Romney with his cash-raising prowess from his solid corporate and financial industry ties has an advantage that McCain didn't. But that's not all; Romney will continue to try and turn the tables and pound Obama on his alleged financial and economic failures. He will ask the question Reagan asked Carter during their 1980 presidential debate, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The question worked again when Obama asked it of the GOP in 2008. But it costs money and lots of it to message the administration's accomplishments on this pivotal issue, and to ultimately convince voters that the answer is yes. The GOP gave Obama no choice but to directly go after the fat cat donors to effectively get his message across and make the case for a second term. Romney will have just as much money to try and make the opposite case.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst and Monday co-host of the Al Sharpton Show. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
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PS politicians should man up and woman up and cut the ear marks - in USA's first budget, education was our highest priority. May the one with the most money win (what's new about that?)
OBAMA 2012 people ..... VOTE!
Be heard
didn't you read the article???? it came "literally" from "nickels and dimes" from lemonade stands and allowances and paper routes...
He seems to forget that Hillary Clinton started the campaign with a HUGE war chest, and an experienced and loyal FLEET of Clinton bundlers. It was poor leadership, strategy and management that led both to wasteful spending and failure to inspire additional support.
Look at her record. Hillary ran two of the MOST expensive Senate campaigns in history with virtually no opposition. She had an army of expensive advisors, consultantss and paid staff, long time riders on the lucrative Clinton gravy train. She also had Bill Clinton collecting huge "speaking and consulting" fees at home and abroad, building their personal bank account, which Hillary then tapped for at least $13 million in "loans." ( wink wink). "Creative" fundraising outside of campaign limitations?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/05/08/36441/clintons-campaign-loans-raise.html#storylink
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/politics/23clintons.html
Among the reasons badly led and managed campaigns run out of money are ... bad leadership and management.
I would have liked to see you dive into what consequences to the progressive movement Obama's dive precludes. My theory is that Obama will back off on the income and capital gains tax increases... Obama netted over $1M from Goldman Sachs alone in the 2008 election cycle. Without backtracking on those promises in the recent SOTU, I think the Wall Street dollar will *heavily* favor a Romney candidacy.
McCain took the public funding.
Obama always goes for the money, this I had no choice stuff just does not fly.