WaPo: Obama gives blessing to a super PAC

[ellisonz]

By Dan Eggen, Updated: Monday, February 6, 9:30 PM

Fearing a tide of spending by outside conservative groups, President Obama is giving his blessing to a pro-Democratic Party “super PAC” that will work to help his reelection, his campaign said late Monday.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a message to supporters that “our campaign has to face the reality of the law as it stands,” which he said gives a large financial advantage to Republicans and their allied groups. Messina said Obama will throw his support to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC founded by two former White House aides that until now has been unable to match its conservative competitors in fundraising.

“We can’t allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm,” Messina wrote.

The move marks a clear political risk for Obama, who has staked much of his political career on opposition to the outsized role of “secret billionaires” and other monied interests while also attempting to win reelection in a struggling economy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-in-a-switch-endorses-pro-democratic-super-pac/2012/02/06/gIQAVqnWvQ_story.html?hpid=z2

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Good. Sucks he has to, but in this election, we'll need to fight fire with fire...

I don't just wanna win this one, I wanna win big.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. The Koch brothers and their minions just announced they will spend $100 million

in super PAC money to try and defeat Obama.

Obama has no choice.

[OKNancy]

3. here is the Politico article

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72531.html

which is of course, a little more snotty about it:

President Barack Obama — in an act of hypocrisy or necessity, depending on the beholder — has reversed course and is now blessing the efforts of a sputtering super PAC, Priorities USA Action, organized to fight GOP dark-money attacks.
On Monday morning, Obama reviled the “negative” tone of the super PACs, a dominant fundraising source in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. But by the evening word leaked to POLITICO that Obama had offered his support for Priorities USA Action, which thus far has raised a fraction of what GOP-backed groups have raked in.

Obama’s top campaign staff and even some Cabinet members will appear at super PAC events. The president himself will not address super PAC donors, although there’s nothing to legally prohibit the president, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden from expressing their support for the group — as GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has done for his own pet super PAC.


more at the link

[Obama3_16]

4. I support this. It would be great if Congress could do something to change this dynamic

I know...completely unreasonable. But this is like those temporary blemishes on our nation's history that must be removed. The Citizens United case was a miscarriage of justice and original intent of the Congress. For those so-called strict constructionists to find in favor of the wealthy and corporate shows they are about ideology--not legal purity.