Emerging Corruption in Obama's Campaign

"The thirteenth rule: pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, p. 130

This past week, three major stories highlighted corruption on the campaign side of team Obama.  Handled properly, these three scandals will devastate Obama's re-election effort.  Consider the following:

• In 2009, Jim Messina, who was Deputy White House Chief of Staff at the time, negotiated a corrupt bargain with the Pharmaceutical Industry to secure their support for Obama's Health Insurance Protection Racket.  That corrupt bargain has lead to drug shortages, but protected PhRMA's profits.  Jim Messina is currently Obama's 2012 Campaign Manager.

• David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 campaign, got paid $100,000 to give a speech in 2010 to a company that does business with the Iranian Military.  This probably isn't illegal, but it stinks to high heck.  David Plouffe is currently the White House liaison to the re-election campaign.

• Stephanie Cutter, currently Jim Messina's deputy, helped the official Obama 2012 campaign coordinate an attack with a pro-Obama SuperPAC.  This is illegal.  Stephanie Cutter should be prosecuted.

The corruption in Obama's campaign is an allegory for the corruption in Obama's White House.  If they're smart, Team Mitt will demand Obama fire these people from his political team, then relentlessly tie them to Obama if he doesn't.  If Obama continues to employ these people, it will speak volumes about his character.

The corruption among policy-makers in the Obama White House is staggering.  Rooting it out will be a difficult, long-term, process.  Thus, we won't achieve much before election day.

Going after corruption on the Obama political team is easier.  Firing a political staffer, even one on the government payroll, is simple. Cabinet members and policy makers are entitled to certain due process that political staffers are not.  Forcing the Obama operation to jettison these staffers (or endure the bad publicity of keeping them on) will also throw the campaign into greater chaos.  If we can collect the scalps of Jim Messina, David Plouffe, and Stephanie Cutter now, then it will make it MUCH easier to collect the scalps of Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Janet Napoletano, Elena Kagan, and Tim Geithner over time.

Update (8/16/2012):  American Spectator has MUCH more.