Trey Smith
Back in late 2007 - early 2008, candidate Barack Obama voiced his support for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. He pledged to participate in this program, if nominated, and would challenge the Republican nominee to do likewise.
As it so happened, Sen. John McCain (a campaign finance reformer) became the Republican nominee and he opted to participate, but the newly nominated Barack Obama went back on his pledge. He refused to set campaign contribution limits and went on to set a record for contributions raised in a presidential campaign.
In trying to weasel out of his backsliding, Obama pledged that he would work on improving the campaign finance system, if elected. As we all know, Obama indeed was elected president and yet, after 3 years in office, he has reneged on this latter pledge as well. It is not simply that no legislation of this nature has passed Congress; he hasn't offered any for Congress even to consider!
So, the following bit of news from Bloomberg should surprise no one.
President Barack Obama, who has decried the influence of outside groups in politics, is now encouraging his top donors to contribute to the independent political action committee backing his re-election.That's right, kids. After spending some time saying he would not go the Super-PAC route because it corrupts democracy, the president is going the Super-PAC route.
As happened last time around, he again is promising to work on campaign finance reform, if only you will help him to get reelected this time. I'm certain there will be scads of people who will fall for this "pledge" again, but with his dubious track record on backsliding on pledge after pledge, one has to wonder why anyone would believe him.
This is not to suggest that Obama is the first president in the history of our nation to pledge one thing during the campaign and then to go off in the opposite direction once elected. As far as presidents go, this is par for the course. However, this singular president has built his image on the ideas of "hope" and "change".
There simply isn't much hope that HE will change from his backsliding ways!
I don't praise him for this decision, but I dont blame him either for turning to Super PAC money. Thanks to Citizen's United, its impossible to win an election without it, and he realizes that even if it does mean going back on another one of his promises.
ReplyDelete