Obama Changes Course — Will Use SuperPACs After All
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, U.S. Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, policy reversals, superpacs 11 Comments
Obama is very worried about superPACs
President Obama has reversed himself–again. He sure has a bad habit of changing his mind on issues. Now, according to Politico, he’s “reluctantly” decided to “permit” his bundlers to raise money for a superPAC that will provide “outside” support for his reelection campaign.
President Barack Obama — a vehement opponent of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — is offering a reluctant blessing to his top bundlers to raise cash for his pet super PAC in a bid to kick-start sluggish fundraising for Priorities USA Action, according to three Democrats with knowledge of the decision….
Top Obama campaign staff will appear at super PAC events, although the president himself will not.
Obama told Matt Lauer in an interview shown just this morning that he “worries” about superPACs.
“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped before the Super Bowl on Sunday. “There is gonna be just a lot of money floating around, and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative.”
As of tonight:
Two former White House aides have formed a super PAC, Priorities USA Action, which — along with an affiliated nonprofit group — hopes to raise $100 million to support Obama. But so far, its funding has been dwarfed by Republican groups’. In all of 2011, the Priorities groups reported raising $6.7 million while a single donor, casino owner Sheldon Adelson, has poured $10 million into a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
Obama’s campaign has vowed that neither Obama nor his aides will raise money for super PACs, but the president’s senior campaign staff is now allowing top fundraisers to request that wealthy contributors donate to Priorities USA Action.
Obama was also very concerned about NAFTA, immunity for telecoms, and the Iraq war before reversing his positions on those issues, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.
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Wow BB you are on the ball! I just saw this change of opinion about superpacs. And you are right, no surprise at all.
I figured it would happen eventually. Remember when he was going to take public money in 2008 and then suddenly he wasn’t?
Yes, remember when he promised that if McCain did, he would? And of course did a 180. Set back campaign finance reform at least a couple of decades if not forever with his decision.
Caption for above picture: Obama bites his lip and tries not to laugh as he announces his “reluctance” to take super PAC funding.
True to nature. No surprises when it comes to the man. He turns on a dime. It’s all about winning after all.
Ugh!
Hey, we can have a game predicting when and what he’ll do a reverso on next!
Horrible thought: he’ll end up smack next to Romney by November. I need to look at the immigration preferences for Canada very closely again.
Heh, I didn’t even know he wasn’t going to use SuperPACs. Not doing it, and letting Rove run loose with $50 million to spend, would have been really dumb.
Company Faces Forgery Charges in Mo. Foreclosures
Sorry for the OT: This is what we need a lot more of in this country. Grand juries and prosecutors doing what their jobs.
great, Ms. Brown could face up to seven years in prison where she belongs 👿
7 years for each of 136 counts 🙂
By the way, Missouri and AG Chris Koster has not been mentioned at all by the bloggers like Yves and DDay who are supposedly so knowledgable about what’s going on in the country. That indicates to me that their sources are limited to a small number of people in NY or DC who feed them information.
Missing the criminal investigation of one of the largest companies that did foreclosure services doesn’t give me confidence in their posts at all.