The Age of the Super PAC

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/21-1

Two years after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling has seen the rise of the "super PAC," which can take unlimited donations from people or corporations in support of a candidate.

Many believe that the ability to donate in this way to candidates is giving the super-rich too much influence.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Through organizations with names like Winning Our Future, wealthy interests can furtively fund the type of nasty TV ads that torpedoed then-surging Newt Gingrich before the Iowa caucuses and later carpet-bombed South Carolinians with commercials calling Mitt Romney a job-killing "corporate raider" when he led the Bain Capital private equity firm.

At the same time, presidential aspirants can claim that they had nothing to do with the attacks because the presidential campaigns can't legally communicate with the super PACs doing the dirty work.

Canada's Globe and Mail notes that the super PACs can outspend the campaigns themselves:

The super political action committee, or Super PAC as they are called, act as a surrogate for the candidate, often pulling in far more money than the candidate’s own campaign and waging a withering line of attack on the airwaves against opponents.

[rgbecker]

1. Prepare yourselves for the most vicious, racist campaign this year.

When these corporations and super pacs get going without accountability they will slamming Obama like we've never seen. Here in Massachusetts, with Warren running against Brown, the local stations will be reaping huge revenues from these advertisments.
Forgetabout the whole "I'm Scott Brown, and I approve this ad" talk. Instead its "Its not me! I'd never say that about a lady!" And "Oh no, don't look at me, my best friends are black!" from Romney.