Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is obviously doing something very right.
On Aug. 11, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent a fundraising e-mail from Paul Begala with the subject line: “Breaking: Shadow Group Targets Democrats.”
Begala then launched an attack on the very popular and very effective conservative grass-roots organization, the AFP.
"The radical corporate lobbying group Americans for Prosperity just unleashed one of the largest attack ad buys so far in a desperate attempt to smear House Democrats' efforts to crack down on corporate outsourcers."
Two days earlier, President Obama speaking in Austin, Texas at a DNC fundraiser at the posh Four Season Hotel, had this to say about AFP:
Right now, all around this country, there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are.
You don't know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it’s a big oil company, or a big bank. You don't know if it’s a insurance company that wants to see some of the provisions in health reform repealed because it’s good for their bottom line, even if it’s not good for the American people.
Mr. Obama and his speech writers know darn well that AFP is America’s leading conservative grassroots organization.
Obama continues:
A Supreme Court decision allowed this to happen. And we tried to fix it, just by saying disclose what’s going on, and making sure that foreign companies can’t influence our elections.
Mr. Obama is of course refering to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. AFP, however, was formed and was effective years before that case was even brought. He is being disingenuous, to put it politely.
Obama adds:
They don't want you to know who the Americans for Prosperity are, because they're thinking about the next election. But we’ve got to think about future generations. We’ve got to make sure that we’re fighting for reform. We’ve got to make sure that we don't have a corporate takeover of our democracy.
Mr. Obama and the Democrats rely heavily on left-wing counterparts to AFP to spread their socialist agenda. In fact, left-wing groups outnumber conservative groups like AFP probably by a ration of 25-to-1. These attacks are so unscrupulous, hypocritical, and . . . stupid. I don’t know where to begin.
It’s a sad commentary that the president of the United States engages in such shameless demagoguery.
The audience to whom Mr. Obama delivered his speech doesn’t know who or what AFP is, but he and his speech writers do. Especially coming from a taxpayer-supported “community organizing” nonprofit background like Mr. Obama, this speech is evidence that he is just plain dishonest.
You don’t kick a sleeping dog. Mr. Obama and the Democrats, by focusing on AFP, demonstrate they know what an effective job AFP is doing.
Desperate, divisive, red-meat invectives against private organizations may feed the 20 percent of the population that is Obama’s base, but will generate perhaps a 10th or less in contributions that AFP will get as a result of this free publicity that it is an obvious thorn in Obama’s side.
AFP should send thank-you notes to the president, the DCCC, and Mr. Begala.
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