In my last post I quoted from an interview of Sheldon Adelson by Forbes‘ Steven Bertoni that is actually an excerpt from an upcoming cover story on the casino mogul. Confronted with his responsibility for the unusually vicious attack ads on Mitt Romney that the Gingrich Super-PAC Winning Our Future ran in SC, Adelson just waved his hand dismissively and said it was “untrue.” This sort of bald-faced assertion seems to be a personal signature for Sheldon, as evidenced by another segment of the interview:
“I’m against very wealthy Âpeople attempting to or influencing elections,” he shrugs. “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I’m not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don’t want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I’m proud of what I do and I’m not looking to escape recognition.”
Yeah, that George Soros is devious, all right; nobody’s ever heard his name before. Adelson is just a regular guy whose ability to earn an honest living is being threatened by Barack Obama’s administration, and he’s not going to sit by and watch socialism take over America:
The man whose net worth, by Forbes’ calculations, has jumped more ($21.6 billion) during Obama Administration than any American — Mark Zuckerberg included — wants to take the president out for economic reasons.“What scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we’ve been experiencing for almost four years. That scares me because the redistribution of wealth is the path to more socialism, and to more of the government controlling people’s lives. What scares me is the lack of accountability that people would prefer to experience, just let the government take care of everything and I’ll go fish or I won’t work, etc.”
Adelson suggests that his personal spending on Super-PACs could reach $100 million–he’s already up to a reported $21 million if you count his family’s contributions–and could definitely go much higher, notes Bertoni:
With a net worth of roughly $25 billion, that $11 million [his initial investment in the Gingrich Super-PAC], which jolted Gingrich’s flatlining presidential bid back to life, equates to 0.044% of his fortune. For someone with a $1 million net worth, the equivalent would be $440, or a two-night stay at Adelson’s Venetian casino. Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice.
Hard to blame him, or the folks lavishly financing Mitt Romney’s heavier-spending, and equally vicious, Super-PAC. After all, in Obama’s America, they are being taxed and regulated into penury. Perhaps buying a presidential candidate is the last resort before they give up and repair to Galt’s Gulch, leaving the ungrateful parasites of this country behind to fend for themselves.
