Reich begins: "It has been said there is no high ground in American politics since any politician who claims it is likely to be gunned down by those firing from the trenches. That's how the Obama team justifies its decision to endorse a super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited sums for his campaign."
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
The Sad Spectacle of Obama's Super PAC
08 February 12
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t has been said there is no high ground in American politics since any politician who claims it is likely to be gunned down by those firing from the trenches. That's how the Obama team justifies its decision to endorse a super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited sums for his campaign.
Baloney. Good ends don't justify corrupt means.
I understand the White House's concerns. Obama is a proven fundraiser - he cobbled together an unprecedented $745 million for the 2008 election and has already raised $224 million for this one. But his aides figure Romney can raise almost as much, and they fear an additional $500 million or more will be funneled to Romney by a relative handful of rich individuals and corporations through right-wing super PACS like "American Crossroads."
The White House was surprised that super PACs outspent the GOP candidates themselves in several of the early primary contests, and noted how easily Romney's super PAC delivered Florida to him and pushed Newt Gingrich from first-place to fourth-place in Iowa.
Romney's friends on Wall Street and in the executive suites of the nation's biggest corporations have the deepest pockets in America. His super PAC got $18 million from just 200 donors in the second half of last year, including million-dollar checks from hedge-fund moguls, industrialists and bankers.
How many billionaires does it take to buy a presidential election? "With so much at stake" wrote Obama campaign manager Jim Messina on the Obama campaign's blog, Obama couldn't "unilaterally disarm."
But would refusing to be corrupted this way really amount to unilateral disarmament? To the contrary, I think it would have given the President a rallying cry that nearly all Americans would get behind: "More of the nation's wealth and political power is now in the hands of fewer people and large corporations than since the era of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. I will not allow our democracy to be corrupted by this! I will fight to take back our government!"
Small donations would have flooded the Obama campaign, overwhelming Romney's billionaire super PACs. The people would have been given a chance to be heard.
The sad truth is Obama has never really occupied the high ground on campaign finance. He refused public financing in 2008. Once president, he didn't go to bat for a system of public financing that would have made it possible for candidates to raise enough money from small donors and matching public funds they wouldn't need to rely on a few billionaires pumping unlimited sums into super PACS. He hasn't even fought for public disclosure of super PAC donations.
And now he's made a total mockery of the Court's na�ve belief that super PACs would remain separate from individual campaigns, by officially endorsing his own super PAC and allowing campaign manager Jim Messina and even cabinet officers to speak at his super PAC events. Obama will not appear at such events but he, Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden will encourage support of the Obama super PAC.
One Obama adviser says Obama's decision to openly endorse his super PAC has had an immediate effect. "Our donors get it," the official said, adding that they now want to "go fight the other side."
Exactly. So now a relative handful of super-rich Democrats want fight a relative handful of super-rich Republicans. And we call this a democracy.
Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," "Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and America's Future." His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.
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Europe is all jazzed up over this (I'm in Europe now, and it's madness, truly), as is "The Street," for all the reasons you've pointed out. A call for a referendum gives power to the people...wow... what a novel idea. I can see the headline now:
"Greece: The First REAL Democracy!"
Nan
support assange and wikileaks if u want your gov to be honest with you and allow u to have a say.
http://www.swedenversusassange.com/
The fact that Greece is out spending its ability to repay will not go away with any vote about refinancing - they have to live within their means or go bankrupt and then live within their means.
Just like our politicians never should of replaced actual savings in Social Security with IOU's and papered that fact over by calling the IOU's government securities (Dudes - when these 'securities' mature - exactly where is the money going to come from to make them good?)
Then you are a poor student of history.
The founders knew that democracies always commit suicide by realizing they can vote them selves largess from the public treasury and they do and the whole thing collapses - then a dictatorship is pushed in to play by the same idiots who did not want to take responsibility for them selves when they were a democracy (its the 1% holding us down mannn -- what an ignorant load of crap.)
Whenever the topic is of importance to the 1% oligarchs, it is ALWAYS an inside job here in the land of faux democracy.
Whose faux is it...
I totally agree!
Nan
Robbing Greece is the symbolic, if not actual, death blow they would like to inflict on meaningful Democracy. They want the Greek people to pay more taxes while getting lower wages and in the meantime they should sell off their historical inheritance.
The banks fucked Greece up back 10 years ago when they began insisting on austerity instead of investment. The banks lost money and the people must pay. I hope the righties look at Greece and see the dangers of cutting everything back, of ignoring investing in the future, of putting the onus of recovery on those least able to afford it.
Instead they will just twist the Greek fiasco into a warped validation of their concepts of economics.
When are we going to wake up to the fact that the IMF and banks should not control the world? We followed the IMF bailout/payoff/ austerity model and screwed the pooch--finance execs bought new Porsches and vacationed offshore on our dime, also.
So Greece had the guts to ask the people. Wow, what an amazing and courageous step to take.
>> If Greek voters reject the terms and the nation defaults, it will face far higher borrowing costs [??] in the future
Greece has been a great role model, they have the ability to restructure.
So OB is going there to tell them not to be a Democracy while killing other Dictators and lying to the people in other Countries about Democracy Should be interesting .
Greece hold your own and tell Euro to take their markers and shove them. People of Greece stop and look, are you importing more than you export...Suppor t Made in Greece! That goes for all Countries. Put your Country first...let China et al export to themselves. Keep jobs in your Country. Tell Wall Street to go home. Finance thru Credit Unions let the Banks and Corporate shills play their games amongst themselves.
Review the past, correct it, you will see once you start listening to others, not following what you know, you lose control on your situation.
Democracy is Alive and Well in Greece!!
Glad we found its location, there is hope for us yet