COMMENTARY | There is a new documentary coming out titled “When Mitt Romney Came to Town”. It is basically a hit piece on Mitt Romney and is coming from a super PAC that is supporting Newt Gingrich. Although the full version has not yet been released, the documentary presumably tries to paint Romney as Gordon Gekko from the movie “Wall Street”. How will attacks such as this by super PACs influence potential Republican voters?
Let’s face facts: Politics, and especially presidential politics, is a sport for grown-ups. Just like some sporting events, if you are not playing dirty you are not playing to win. Politics is a difficult business and in a presidential election the country needs the best candidates. The grueling process that is our presidential selection process prepares the president for the scrutiny he is going to face and for the tough times which he will inevitably encounter. Mr. Romney blasted Newt Gingrich in Iowa and now Mr. Gingrich is simply returning fire. Besides this, if Mr. Romney thinks Newt Gingrich’s attacks are vicious, wait until the Obama machine starts to take him out.
In 2010 the Supreme Court made a controversial decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This case opened the door to allow companies and unions to give unlimited amounts of money to candidates. It also gave rise to super PACs. I personally have no problem with this. After all, companies and unions are just a collection of individuals and they should be able to have their say about rules and laws that will affect their businesses. However, there should also be full disclosure citing from where the money is coming.
From a personal standpoint, I will try to do some investigation into which super PACs are supporting which presidential candidates. Unfortunately, I will probably be one of the few to do this. I believe most people just watch the ads on TV and the negative ads eventually pull down the targeted candidates. This was the purpose of the ads in the first place. The reason people spend millions of dollars on negative advertising is because it works. If the ads did not work candidates, or super PACs, would put the money to better uses. We will have to wait for a few weeks to see if the super PACs of Gingrich and Romney spent their money wisely.