Perils of the Free Enterprise Campaign

Mitt Romney is the candidate of predatory capitalism so it is fitting that the way his campaign is organized reflects that approach.  It may be the only non-hypocritical aspect of it.  But it also may be the source of its doom.

We've learned that true to the higher management practice in predatory capitalist firms, Romney awarded generous bonuses to fellow executives of his campaign, even though they are failing.  We've also learned that he fields half the number of campaign workers than the Obama campaign does for the same amount of money, because he pays them twice as much.  It's about profit for everybody, it seems.

But the privatized and outsourced campaigning made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, and embraced by the Romney campaign, apparently has the same fundamental flaws as military contractors and other privatized public functions.

It's been kind of a mystery why all the millions that his billionaire backers have chipped in haven't worked to either demonize President Obama or make the voters like Romney.  We got one answer this week when it was revealed that superpacs pay several times more than campaigns do for the same airtime for their ads.  It's a quirk (or I guess they and the Supremes would say a flaw) of the law that actual candidates get preferred rates.

But here's another factor that really rings true to me: when you privatize the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars for campaigns, the folks doing the spending may not have the candidate uppermost in their consideration.  No, like good predatory capitalists, they're fixated on Number One.

Writes Bruce Bartlett in the Fiscal Times: "Another dirty secret about independent PAC spending is that it is often guided more by what makes money for the managers than what’s best for parties and candidates. They typically direct TV advertising toward agencies they themselves own and where they get a 15 percent commission; direct mail campaigns are conducted by companies they own as well on which similar commissions are paid; polls are conducted by polling firms they own or are affiliated with; and of course the managers of PACs are paid well in the form of salaries and bonuses. Those who fund super PACs are often political neophytes who have no idea that they are being ripped off and taken advantage of."  (Hat Tip to The Dish.)