HMS_Colfax

Thanks for your time, Mr. Potter -- Were you surprised at the disappointing impact that Super PACs had on the 2012 election?

Where does the line exist between Super PACs as political entities which are entitled to various protections under the first amendment and Super PACs as commercial enterprises that enrich their owners and might be subject to commercial speech restrictions? Does the line even exist at all? I guess I'm asking this in reference to an observation Paul Krugman teased out of an essay recently written by Rick Perlstein criticizing much of the conservative political fund-raising apparatus as being something of a con (not that liberals haven't or couldn't fall into the same trap.) Is there a grey area where political speech and commercial speech intersect that could use some constitutional beta-testing or is the law pretty clear on the distinctions?