Will America Let Right-Wing Billionaires Buy the Election for Mitt Romney?

Will America Let Right-Wing Billionaires Buy the Election for Mitt Romney?
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Who would rationally back Mitt Romney for President?
Is that a enough voters for Mitt Romney to win the election? Not likely.

So what is the Republican playbook to make Mitt Romney competitive? The answer is pretty simple. Thanks to the conservative majority on the Supreme Court and their 2010 Citizens United decision, rich right-wingers plan to pour more than a billion dollars through Super PACs in the hope that enough voters will be hoodwinked into voting against their interests, or staying home.

This article from Politico yesterday says "GOP groups plan record $1 billion blitz":

Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives - including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November's elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups' internal operations.

That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections - twice what they had been expected to commit.

Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign.

This money is in addition to the money Romney and the Republican Party will raise -- which is expected to be another $800 million.

Who is behind this onslaught of money?
Rolling Stone
has an article in its current issue -- "
" -- that lists 15 backers and their interests.
  • William Koch -- "The Coke Dealer": Wants to pollute for free.
  • Harold Simmons -- "The Waste Baron": Wants to store radioactive waste in Texas.
  • Bob Perry -- "The McMansoineer": Wants "tort reform."
  • Jim Davis -- "Mr. Fair and Newbalanced": Wants a lucrative defense contract.
  • Richard and Bill Marriott Jr.: "The Hotel Tycoons." Wants taxpayers to subsidize luxury travel.
  • Edward Conrad -- "The Bain Buddy": Wants to screw taxpayers by keeping his hedge fund income loophole.
  • Frank Vandersloot -- "The Pyramid Schemer": Wants fewer consumer protections.
  • Steve Lund -- "The Olympic Partner": Wants to protect false advertising and marketing scams.
  • Julian Robertson Jr. -- "The Tax Dodger": Wants unfairly low taxes.
  • John Paulson -- "Goldman's Sugar Daddy": Wants feds to back off regulating Wall Street.
  • Paul Singer -- "The Vulture Capitalist": Wants U.S. government backing for his $2 billion lawsuit against Argentina.
  • Bob Mercer -- "The Quant Master": Wants to block any tax on stock transactions.
  • Kenneth Griffin -- "The King of Chicago": Wants to end Dodd-Frank.
  • L. Francis Rooney III -- "The Ambassador": Wants more building contracts and patronage.
  • Steven Webster -- "Dr. Drill": Wants to drill, baby, drill.
We also know that Karl Rove controls
and Crossroads GPS, which intend to raise and spend over $300 million.
, run by Romney cronies, spent more than
in the primaries, almost all of it in attack ads in support of Mitt Romney. They can be expected to raise much more for the general election. Other players expected to spend $100 million or more include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The
lists others.

Unfortunately, media onslaughts often work. How else to explain that 70 percent of Americans once thought Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11?

Let's hope they don't work this time.

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