Billionaire fiscal conservative spending $10M to back Romney
Online brokerage TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts speaks Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, during a ceremonial unveiling of his portrait which will hang in company headquarters in Omaha, Neb.
/ AP Photo/Nati Harnik(CBS News) After taking heat earlier this year for his ties to a proposal for a controversial ad campaign against President Obama, billionaire businessman Joe Ricketts is moving ahead with a plan to invest $10 million to support Mitt Romney for president, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ricketts, the founder of the company that became TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, will invest the money in the super PAC he started called Ending Spending Action Fund. The group will reportedly air national cable television ads as well as broadcast ads in swing states like Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio and Iowa.
The ads will feature stories of disenchanted Obama supporters who are voting for Mitt Romney this year. In one video posted online, a voter named Lynne from Davenport, Iowa, explains, "I've been a lifelong Democrat and a teacher for 40 years... I voted for Obama in '08, but he's taking our country in the totally wrong direction."
Ricketts also plans on spending $2 million to help Republican congressional candidates, the Journal reports, bringing his total expected spending on the 2012 election to about $18.5 million.
Ricketts' super PAC came under fire earlier this year after it was reported he was supporting a proposed ad campaign that would have hit President Obama for his ties to the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The proposed ad campaign drew serious rebukes from Democrats as well as Romney. Ricketts, however, said the plan for that ad campaign was only a suggestion and was never put into motion.
Popular in Politics
- Immigration reform would cut deficit, analysis shows 65 Comments
- House Republicans pass 20-week limit on abortions 115 Comments
- Senators: U.S. must take "more decisive" military action in Syria
- Snowden: U.S. gov't destroyed my chance for fair trial
- Treasury secretary's loopy signature is now less loopy
- FBI: Surveillance info helped reveal subway, stock exchange bombings 210 Comments
- Bill Ayers: Obama should be tried for war crimes
- Obama on NSA programs: Americans "not getting the complete story" 248 Comments
Romney will lose this election, despite the fact that Obama is incompetent to be president. No amount of money can paper over Romney's thick-headedness. He may be smart, but he certainly doesn't show it. He may have a solution, but he certainly hasn't told it.
As for his remark about not going after the votes of victims who are being taken care of by the government, he's right. Most of them won't vote for him -- they fear they will be cut off from support. But he's wrong about the 47% -- the number of people getting money from the government is far higher. He forgot his banking buddies, the Wall Streeters living on money pumped out by the Fed, government contractors and subcontractors, and many more.
He's toast -- Ricketts should spend the money on the Cubs.
75% of GOP donations come from just 6% of those donating.
Compared to the Dems, where 98% of their donations are about 54.00 average.
So it will take about 200,000 poor and middle class people donating 50 bucks each to counteract this one Rich guy.
You can see pretty clearly which group is nothing more than a special interest group for the Rich and which group truly represents the bulk of the people in the US.
Did you know the party you are voting for hates your profession and blames you for state budget deficits?
I find it hard to believe that a life-long Dem (or any party for that matter) would suddenly switch, especially in this case, considering the "blah" Romney as your choice.
On the other hand, neither is Romney, so Obama looks he's held over for another four long years.