President Obama's decision to embrace millions in contributions to his inaugural committee is just another example of the many positions on which Mr. Obama has done an about face now that his re-election is secure. Prior to his election, the president criticized the Supreme Court decision that allowed superPAC contributions and continued to rail against large donor influence during the campaign. He argued that big money neutralized the individual and/or small donors. He lost that argument as evidenced by the millions of dollars spent in the election campaign. But, he won the election so the argument no longer matters. Also, the president's inaugural committee will not be voluntarily identifying donors as it did in the 2012 election year. So much for transparency.
I suspect that the Democratic Party as led by Mr. Obama will predictably become interested in big-money influence sometime in 2015 — conveniently in advance of the next presidential election. At that time, I wonder if we will remember the hypocrisy of this moment. I'll bet big money we don't.
Ronald Bearwald
Northbrook
