The Message Pitch

For all the readers out there who like to complain that Barack Obama is a tool of the wealthy, congratulations!  The American Future Fund is spending $4 million in SuperPAC ads in nine swing states this month to push that exact message to help the Republicans.

The AFF offensive highlights Obama’s claim – in a 2009 interview – that he didn’t “run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers.” The conservative group points out in its new ad that the Obama administration has included a lineup of veterans of the financial services industry, including White House chiefs of staff Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daley and Jack Lew.

“His White House is full of Wall Street executives,” the spot says. “Now, Obama’s flush with cash, returning to Wall Street for more glitzy fundraisers … Obama won’t admit to supporting Wall Street, but Wall Street sure supports President Obama.”

The AFF television ads will run on cable in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. That’s real money going onto the airwaves in real states from a group that spent heavily in the 2010 midterms, but which has yet to fully ramp up for the 2012 general election.

Gosh, I wonder who the targets of those ads are?  After all, Nader voters cost Obama/Biden Missouri in 2008.  The Republican SuperPACs may not know who their candidate is yet, but they damn sure know who they're running against in November.  They're willing to spend big money to demoralize Obama voters already: $4 million in February, more than eight months before the election, to convince voters in swing states that Obama has failed them.

And again, these were the same SuperPAC folks that spent almost ten million in 2010 to defeat Democrats.  They're getting a head start here in 2012, and they're using an awfully familiar message to push, too.

It's the same ones we see the Useful Idiots pushing for the last two years.  Now the stakes are much higher, and the Republicans are using it to attack the Democrats.  And why wouldn't they?  It worked well for them in 2010.

If they are willing to spend $4 million in February to push this manic progressive nonsense, how much will they be willing to spend in months closer to the election?  Think about that while you're deciding which party is beholden to the 1%.