Whenever you're done reading that Girls recap, toggle on over and remember just how bad Citizens United is.
Thanks to the anonymity granted to donors under Citizens United—so thorough that sometimes even the heads of the Super PACs don't know who's donating—not only is there no way to know who's funding political advertisements, but there's no way to hold them accountable. If an attack ad makes a false claim, who's responsible for it?
To wit: Crossroads GPS, Karl Rove's bathhouse for anonymous Republican donors, has a new ad going up in swing states on Thursday that takes Obama to task for a variety of "broken promises." Whereas Rove's ads recently has been sharp, snarky and kind of fun, this one is a page from the political playbook kept behind the desk: dark colors, ominous voiceovers and not a bit of truth to it:
David Firehouse does a such a good job of taking down the ad's claims that I'll let him do the work here:
The president, says the ad, promised to help millions of homeowners facing foreclosure. “Promise broken,” the announcer says. “One in five mortgages are still under water.” In fact, mortgage delinquencies recently hit a four-year low. President Obama has come up with a strong proposal to help homeowners refinance, but it would be paid for with a bank tax that Republicans have opposed. And Mr. Romney’s solution to the foreclosure problem? “Let it run its course and hit the bottom,” he said. No need for any government help here.
The president’s promise that no family making less than $250,000 would see a tax increase? “Broken. Obamacare raises 18 different taxes.” It doesn’t explain that the biggest of those increases, which applies the Medicare payroll tax to investment income, only affects those with family incomes of greater than $250,000, as promised. The other increases are on things like tanning salons or medical devices, which affect very few people.
And finally, the ad excoriates Mr. Obama for failing to cut the deficit in half, as he promised to do. “He hasn’t even come close.” It never mentions that every one of the president’s budget proposals have been shot down by Republicans for daring to raise revenue.
Normally, when a political ad makes questionable or discreditable claims, the candidate has to answer for it. Even in the case of, say, the RNC running with a vicious ad, the onus is on the candidate to disown the claims.
But the required lack of coordination between candidate and Super PAC, ostensibly a buffer between the piles of anonymous money and the candidate, works here as an escape hatch. Romney can't be held responsible for any of the content of these ads, because he's legally prohibited from colluding with the Super PACs that produce them. A Republican Super PAC makes a false claim about Obama? Romney shrugs his shoulders; he's the one person in the world who can't tell them to stop.
We've heard a lot so far about why anonymous donors are bad, but Crossroads' ad is the first real, meaty example of this new level of anonymity in action. It's not just that CU allows organizations to dodge responsibility for their ad, but this accountability black hole could just as easily encourage groups to make false or salacious claims, knowing there's no way to be held responsible.
This ad only makes untrue statements about Obama's record. What happens when the Super PAC-funded ad campaign about his *real* ties to Jeremiah Wright gets started? Once groups realize that they can't be held responsible for claims made in political ads, is there any restraint on what they can claim?
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