Ruth Marcus on the Obama Super PAC Flip Flop

This strikes me as exactly right:

Thus Messina’s announcement last week, in an e-mail headlined, “We Will Not Play by Two Sets of Rules.” The Obama campaign, Messina said, “has to face the reality of the law as it currently stands.”

Yes, but did it really have to go so far as to involve the White House itself?

Granted, the word “flimsy” overstates the fiction of separateness between the Republican super PACs and the candidates they are supporting. Mitt Romney appeared at an event for his super PAC. Rick Santorum, as my colleague Jennifer Rubin reported, is traveling with the chief donor to his super PAC, Foster Friess. So much for independence.

Yet the Obama campaign had a choice. It could have trumpeted its support for American Priorities without deploying campaign officials. It could have deployed campaign officials without involving the administration. Instead, it chose to push the envelope.

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