Advice to Candidates: Don't Sign Pledges to Anybody

Even if you think you agree with them:

A social conservative Iowa group has retracted language regarding slavery from the opening of a presidential candidates' pledge, amid a growing controversy over the document that Michele Bachmann had signed and Rick Santorum committed to.

The original "marriage vow" from the Family Leader, unveiled last week, included a line at the opening of its preamble, which suggested that black children born into slavery were better off in terms of family life than African-American kids born today.

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA?s first African-American President," read the preamble.

But this evening, amid growing questions aimed at Bachmann, Family Leader officials said they'd removed the slavery language from the preamble.

If I were a candidate I would make it quite clear to all these special interest groups that even if I agree 100% with their position I'm not signing anyone's pledges. They create these things so they can sell the support of their organization to the candidates that agree to sign them, and so they can get some press coverage for their cause when someone signs or refuses to sign.

Refuse them all. Candidates should be beholden to no organizations. Pledges like this make politics more gimmicky than it has to be and frankly it takes some of the seriousness out of the campaign.