[EL] Super PACs and the Presidency

[Steve Hoersting]

Should, by this time tomorrow, President Obama fail to win re-election, as
now seems the case, many will point to a point made by *Politico* on August
20th of this year:

Obama has himself to blame for what has, arguably, been the greatest
unforced error of his political career: his team's failure to adequately
form a strategy to deal with the avalanche of unregulated cash raining down
on him from GOP and Romney-allied Super PACs.


As one who started blogging against the FEC political-committee regulations
that would kill the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and six other notable
organizations on the Right and Left, and as one who worked on some of the
cases that would bring Americans the "Super PAC" -- and there were four or
five cases responsible, not just two -- it is tempting to want to echo
emphatically the *Politico* commentary: *You're darn right.*

But the commentary doesn't hold. While I understand the role of freed
speech in this election, and the importance of increasingly alternative
committees speaking in an increasing alternative media, I recognize that
the real reason the President ebbs in his reelection effort is his
inability to cloak an out-sized collectivism in American garb.

No one could pull that off. It is regrettable he tried,

-- 
Stephen M. Hoersting

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79867.html
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