Reply #8: Speaking for myself, I made no effort to spin how the pro Obama 527 operated [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

I was curious about it after seeing the OP so I researched it a little and posted what I was finding.

I'll tell you why it matters to me though. I do not like 527's that spring up sudenly to help a candidate win an election and then melt away when the election season ends. For that reason I do not like the talked about pro-Hillary 527 either. I feel differently about 527's that represent ongoing membership organizations like Unions and advocacy groups like MoveOn.org which plan to stick around and which are accountable to heat from their members if they screw up in how they operate during an election. I feel a little better about temporary 527's that are open about who is supporting them compared to those that hide behind a veil until the finacial reporting data comes due, usually long after it is of any use to anyone to know.

If all candidates benefit from 527's during a campaign however I am less likely to come down on one or another for doing so while their competition "profits" from them when convenient to them.

You didn't use the word "swiftboating" in your post that I am replying to, but others have in regards to this new proposed pro-Clinton 527. I strongly differ in that characterization, at least in the abstract until I see what ads are actually produced by this 527 against Obama. I do not equate negative advertising with swiftboating; swiftboating is a specific inherently dishonest subset of the larger category of negative advertising. Every political campaign "goes negative" some of the time. It is often called contrasting positions, or thowing light on the weaknesses of an opponent. It is often called raising issues for the public to consider.

Obama was quick to throw NAFTA against Clinton in Ohio for example, even though she never cast a vote on it herself. That was "an attack" - we can argue about whether it was a fair attack or not, but it was a negative attack on Hillary regardless. None of us have seen the supposedly negative ads this new 527 are rumored to be planning - but I won't call it below the belt unless it is literally shown to be below the belt.