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President Obama鈥檚 flip-flop toward embrace of the "super PAC" formed to support his reelection campaign should come as no surprise.

Yes, Mr. Obama railed against the Supreme Court decision that allowed outside groups to support campaigns with unlimited donations, visibly offending some justices over the matter at his 2010 State of the Union address. More recently, he has called them a 鈥渢hreat to democracy.鈥澛犅�

But the super PAC that supports Obama鈥檚 reelection, Priorities USA Action, was getting clobbered. It raised just $4.4 million last year. The conservative American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by former George W. Bush political guru Karl Rove, raked in $51 million. The biggest super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, Restore Our Future, brought in more than $30 million.

All told, experts predict the Republican super PACs will collect a half billion dollars for the 2012 election. And Team Obama wasn鈥檛 about to 鈥渦nilaterally disarm,鈥� as campaign manager Jim Messina put it in an e-mail late Monday to supporters.

鈥淭he campaign has made clear that they cannot engage in this campaign, they cannot compete effectively ... if they play by a different set of rules,鈥� White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.

Liberal bloggers largely support Obama鈥檚 decision, agreeing that he cannot go into electoral battle under the system he wants, but with the system he has. The most vocal critic has been former Sen. Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin, co-author of the 2002 campaign-finance law aimed at limiting the role of money in politics.

"This is dancing with the devil. I know a lot of Democrats in D.C. don鈥檛 agree, and I understand the desire to do everything possible to win," Mr. Feingold said in a statement. "But this decision will push Democrats to become corporate-lite, and will send us head-on into a battle we know we will lose, because Republicans like Mitt Romney and his friends have and will spend more money."

But chances are, Obama鈥檚 flip-flop won鈥檛 hurt him with voters. In his first presidential campaign, he initially promised to operate within the public financing system, which would have limited how much he could spend.聽聽By June of 2008, he had changed his mind. In an e-mail to supporters then, Obama declared his independence 鈥渇rom a broken system.鈥� Republican Sen. John McCain, his eventual opponent in the general election, accused him of breaking a promise.

Voters hardly blinked. Obama went on to raise $750 million, and won the presidency. As best we can tell, there weren鈥檛 legions of voters who otherwise would have supported Obama but for his broken promise on public financing.

The real challenge for Obama may be finding enough liberal money-bags to open up their checkbooks and match the Republicans in their super PAC giving, or least come in with respectable numbers. The best-known big donor to Democratic causes is billionaire investor George Soros. There鈥檚 big money in liberal Hollywood. And there are Obama鈥檚 鈥渂undlers,鈥� major donors who solicit additional donations from their personal networks.聽聽聽

On Monday night, Obama campaign officials had a conference call with major bundlers, explaining the change in policy and encouraging them to donate to the Obama super PAC. According to CNN, one bundler on the call 鈥渜uestioned the effectiveness of the new approach, explaining every large donor of means had already been approached for a donation by Priorities USA.鈥�