About Me 0088: Being Right or Making Money

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'staff, moreover, given that Obama has backed off "default" and given S&P and Moody's
by Mike gamecock DeVine

I am thankful that people like Yoder were not fighting in the Revolution.
by avgjo

As per the commission and 2nd "tranch" - The second tranch will require a VOTE of both
by Mike gamecock DeVine

Need to Keep FY 2012 Ryan savings
by Freedoms Truth

The Country
by caboose

Rush is on now saying that thanks to Boehner's brilliant plan,
by avgjo

Left not happy with this deal
by Freedoms Truth

But
by ghostship

If you think what Boehner did was 'not trying'
by drothgery

I hope a filibuster occurs.
by runner12

How I became a Precinct delegate and National Convention Delegate
by audax

There will be no
by concap

How I did it in 3 States.....
by audax

Only controlling 1/2 of 1/3 of the gov't is irrelevant to this issue -- except for the personal comfort of our elected officials.
by kestrel

Didn't even get 90% fake cuts.
by Flagstaff

Short term thinking
by duanej

Correction:
by Wubbies World

Oppose Boehner 4.0 Debt Deal?
by mkozikowski

kowalski
by kowalski

Ruling Class Republicans and thier leadership are ...
by Wubbies World

If only the DC insiders were as effective as Smurfs...
by anotherindyfilmguy

Yes...
by udtiger

Read ColdWarrior, Become a Precinct Delegate, Help take over the GOP in your area.
by audax

The biggest problem I have with this is:
by anotherindyfilmguy

The best thing that could happen
by concap

It's a real conundrum.
by avgjo

Low Standards
by ghostship

Filibuster?
by anotherindyfilmguy

I have no ego about it
by kowalski

You are so right. The deal that never was...the deal that never will be.
by chbroussard

And if we go third party, what will we win.
by gekster

Is Abdo Babdo a Norwegian ?
by johnt

Face it
by caboose

Republican Leadership = "Democrat Lite"
by clarioncaller

remember that scene in...
by macbookben

Blogged it.
by Loren Heal

And a multi-trillion dollar tax hike.
by cwilson

What He Really And Truly Is
by Repair_Man_Jack

To believe...
by rowdydfw

Yes, it does.
by cwilson

» 79 comments

The 2012 election cycle is proving to be a bit of a dry spell for fundraising for many Republican contenders, as even the most powerful fundraisers are appearing to underperform. Last night Rachel Maddow took a look at the finances of several candidates– from the formidable fundraiser Mitt Romney to folksy upstart Rep. Thaddeus McCotter– and found they made significantly less money than one would assume. This led Maddow to conclude the money was being channeled elsewhere, to third party PACs, which could potentially decide the 2012 election.

Maddow did not deny that “Mitt Romney is the prohibitive favorite,” but noticed that the total funds he had put together so far were not exactly meeting expectations. That’s not to say other candidates were doing better: Jon Huntsman dove into his private money to fund himself, while other candidates with less private largess were simply making do. But for Romney this appeared most damaging to Maddow, as he was largely considered the frontrunner because of his money-making ability. “If you don’t actually attract the amount of money you said you were going to, what happens then?”

The culprit, to Maddow, was this year’s landmark Citizens United case, which dismantled much of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (aka McCain-Feingold) and allowed corporations to donate to candidates as persons. “Money is just carving a new path down the mountain this year,” she suggested, noting that, if given the choice, donating anonymously via corporations to private groups instead of candidates is the more appealing way to invest in politics. “Why not instead give unlimited money that you don’t need to put your name on– why not starve the candidates and instead spend on outside groups?”

The night’s guest, E.J. Dionne, agreed, abstaining from calling Citizens United the worst Supreme Court decision ever (Dred Scott came to mind) but calling it “very, very alarming” and “a terrible decision.” He did not give the new fundraising all the credit, however, suggesting that “let’s beat Barack Obama” is a far more popular conservative argument than “let’s elect one of these people.”

Citizens United has done very much to change the landscape of campaign finance, but in arguing that the 2012 election will be more muddled with anonymous money and, particularly, decided by outside groups than any other election is to ignore much of what has happened in the past decade. If anything, the internet’s democratization of campaign donations has done more to involve the public in politics than any decision, as has the establishment of 527 groups that can pay for mass political statements unaffiliated from either campaign.

It is impossible for the 2012 election to be the first decided by a third party group– that title belongs to the 2004 election. Yes, Sen. John Kerry’s loss can be attributed to the fact that he was uninspiring, long-winded, and offered little new or different to the country. But the final nail in the coffin for that campaign was indisputably the campaign by third party group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose members came out of nowhere to strip Sen. Kerry of what was perhaps his greatest advantage in the 2004 campaign– unlike George W. Bush, he was a war veteran. The Swift Boat Vets turned Sen. Kerry into nothing less than a despicable traitor and national embarrassment. There’s a reason the verb “to swiftboat” is still a common member of our political lexicon: the Swift Boat ads were the first time an unaffiliated third party group used outside funds to sink a presidential candidate with masterful efficiency. For Maddow to present this phenomenon as new is near-sighted, though she is absolutely right in suggesting that the ease with which Citizens United and several similar Supreme Court cases allow for campaign donations will only exacerbate the possibility of such swiftboating.

The segment via MSNBC below:

About Me 0088

Monday, August 1, 2011

Being Right or Making Money

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