The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, the Republican super PAC - American Crossroads - spent around $300 million on advertising. How did American Crossroads fare? According to the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks money in politics - only 6% of Crossroads' spending went to winners. For math majors out there, that means 94% of the organization's spending went to losing candidates. To put it another way - if Crossroads had taken a 1,000-question exam, they would have answered only 60 questions correctly, while answering 940 of them incorrectly. Judging by those numbers, I think we can all agree that American Crossroads failed miserably, right? Not so fast... As Mitt Romney's campaign manager - Matt Rhoades - recently stated with regard to Crossroads and other like-super PACs: "[They] had a very positive impact on leveling the playing field in target states." He continued by saying: "Obama for America had a strategy to put Governor Romney and hi...

I have to say, last night was beautiful. The Republican Party outspent the Democratic Party on ads. Super PAC funding heavily favored the Republican Party. I can't tell you how many more anti-Obama (and other Democrats) than anti-Romney (and other Republicans) mailers and commercials I received and saw through the past several weeks. Republican leaders tried suppressing the vote through making voter IDs mandatory and also condensing the early-vote time, particularly in Democratic strongholds. As a Politifact.com study pointed out, Republican leaders lied far more than Democratic ones. Mitt Romney, along with other Republican leaders and  business CEOs, tried intimidating voters in saying their jobs were on the line if Obama won a second term. Even having to contend with all this, the people rose to the occasion - re-elected Barack Obama as President, helped Democrats gain seats in both the Senate and the House - and collectively raised our middle fingers to Citizens United. Thank y...

One reason I really hope that the Democratic Party kicks some serious tail tomorrow night in the elections is the Citizens United ruling. In this election cycle, $628,942,928 has been spent by Super PACs. Among the top five Super PAC spenders are three conservative-leaning groups: American Crossroads, Restore Our Future and Americans for Prosperity, whom have spent a combined $355,098,737. The two liberal-leaning groups - Priorities USA and Majority PAC - have spent a combined $104,905,151, or 29.5% of the there conservative-leaning groups. For the presidential election, Super PACs have spent a combined $556,746,117. When it comes to President Obama, $25,889,820 has been spent in support of him and $137,772,488 against Romney. On the flip-side, for Governor Romney, $90,957,779 has been spent in support of him and $290,006,064 against the president. So, the ratio of anti-Romney to pro-Romney spending by Super PACs is at roughly 1.5 : 1. However, the ratio of anti-Obama to pro-Obama sp...