Obama Inc.: The president’s left-wing network continues to expand

What Organizing for Action needs is a lot of money—but there are plenty of potential sources. “In its first days, Organizing for Action has closely affiliated itself with insider liberal organizations funded by mega-donors like George Soros and corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Citi, and Duke Energy,” Kenneth P. Vogel, Tarini Parti, and Byron Tau of Politico reported last week. This week a spokesman for Walmart told the WFB’s Alana Goodman that donations by the retailer to Organizing for Action are “a hypothetical at this point.” What about at the next point? And would we even know, considering the ability of 501(c)(4) groups to shield their donors, whether such a hypothetical donation had been made? The Obama people have been awfully cagey regarding the means by which they intend to disclose contributions. They have a history of changing positions on campaign finances at the slightest whim. Why give them the benefit of the doubt?

And why not scrutinize, too, the constantly mutating multicellular organism known as the progressive movement? Organizing for Action does not exist in isolation. There is the aforementioned Priorities USA Action. There is the Common Purpose Project, another 501(c)(4) “founded to bring together progressive leaders and organizations in an effort to collaborate on effective public policy messaging.” (That’s Washington-speak for “coordinating strategy.”) One Erik Smith, who took a leave of absence in 2012 to work for Obama, runs Common Purpose. So now he has the same boss, but works in a different shop.

There is also Business Forward, an association of “more than 40 of the world’s largest and most respected companies” that makes “it easier for entrepreneurs, investors, small business owners, and senior executives from across America to get involved in the policy-making process.” They get involved in the policy-making process by forking over a membership fee to Business Forward, which then organizes meetings between company officials and White House personnel.