Marc Ambinder reports that the Obama campaign now wishes it hadn't squashed all the liberal 527 groups that wanted to spend money on his behalf. their agressive efforts to discourage outside spending was always a totally baffling decision. Why would you turn down free help? Obviously, it would be better for Obama to have every commercial come under his campaign's direct control. But I don't see how a bunch of ads hammering John McCain could be a net minus for them.
--Jonathan Chait