Aides denied yesterday that President Barack Obama had tarnished his claim to be a warrior for the middle class by reversing his stance on a fund piling up unlimited cash to back his re-election bid.
The President will now allow top White House staffers and senior campaign advisors to speak at events organized by Priorities USA Action, a political committee founded by two former White House staffers.
Mr Obama had previously railed at a Supreme Court decision gutting campaign finance laws and allowing such “super PACS” to raise unlimited cash from rich individuals and corporations to pour into negative advertising barrages.
But after seeing Republican funds unleash a fearsome political blitz during the party’s nominating contest, Mr Obama apparently concluded that if he could not beat the super PACS he would have to accept a friendly one.
“Our message remains the same,” said a senior campaign official on condition of anonymity.
“We believe that we need to continue to rebuild an economy that is fair for all Americans, allows everybody to get a fair shot to get ahead.
“None of that changes ... what we are doing is ensuring that we are not having two sets of rules about how we fight for those things,” the official said.
“This is the law as it currently stands and we felt strongly that we shouldn’t go into this fight with one arm tied behind our back.” The President argues that Republicans, including his likely foe in November Mitt Romney, are cogs in a system where the rich and corporations unfairly tilt the economy in their favour and deprive the middle classes of a “fair shot.”
Campaign finance reform advocates worry that the economy is unfair precisely because corporations and the wealthy have more of a say in how things are run after stumping up the campaign cash that politicians so greedily seek.
Obama had earlier shown extreme distaste for the 2010 Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited super-PAC fund raising – and his reluctant change of heart was branded by Republicans as evidence of desperation and hypocrisy.
“The Obama of ‘hope and change’ is no more. He’s in full-campaign mode, focused on saving his own job,” Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said.
“With enthusiasm for his campaign lagging, Barack Obama is going to have to do everything in his power to try and mask three years of failed economic policies.”
Mr Obama famously publicly criticized Supreme Court members for “opening the floodgates” to special interest cash during a State of the Union speech.
The decision also recalls an earlier reversal by Mr Obama, who had decried the influence of money in politics, but during his 2008 campaign became the first major candidate since the Watergate scandal to refuse public financing.
The move allowed then-senator Obama to torch candidate spending limits and raise a record $745 million dollars for his presidential campaign.