CORY BOOKER KNOWS: DON'T HOLD BUSINESS EVEN MINIMALLY ACCOUNTABLE IF YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT

In the wake of previous financial crises, even Republican administrations demanded some accountability of savings and loans and of Enron.

But that was many years ago. After a far worse financial collapse, the Obama administration has handled the banks with kid gloves -- and yet he's hated by the banks. Obama runs an ad about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital that's no worse than what was said by every Democrat who ever ran against him in the past, not to mention what a couple of Republican opponents said in this year'a primary campaign --and the combined result has dried up Obama's super PAC contributions:

Obama super PAC slump continues

The pro-Barack Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action is still struggling to keep up with GOP super PACs preparing to unleash millions of dollars in independent advertisements.

Priorities USA Action raised $1.6 million in April, according to federal records released late Sunday. It's the smallest haul the group has pulled in since the meager $59,000 the group raised in January.

The group raked in $3 million less than the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC Restore Our Future raised in April, even as the GOP group reported its worst fundraising month so far this year.

The bulk of Priorities USA Action's cash in April came from labor groups....

Why do you think Cory Booker -- an ambitious guy who seems as if he'd like to be president himself one day -- was on Meet the Press yesterday sandbagging the president?

Appearing on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, Newark, New Jersey Mayor and Obama surrogate Cory Booker said he was "uncomfortable" with the Obama campaign's attacks on Mitt Romney's record with Bain Capital.

"It's a distraction from the real issues," Booker said, of both attacks on Bain and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "It's either gonna be a small campaign about this crap, or it's gonna be a big campaign about the issues the American public cares about."

"I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity," Booker added. "If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, they've done a lot to support businesses -- to grow businesses. And this to me, I'm very uncomfortable."

In the future, if you're a politician with big ambitions, that's the maximum amount of business accountability you're going to be allowed to support: none whatsoever. Business accountability is going to be like gun control: speak in favor of it and your career is over.

Someday Cory Booker may be an ersatz-Democratic president. But in a Citizens United world, Barack Obama will be the last president even vaguely recognizable as Democratic in the post-FDR sense of the word. He's going to be the last president we'll ever have who even pays lip service to accountability for business.

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UPDATE: And no, Cory, you can't walk it back. You were far too definite and far too specific. You said it was "nauseating" ever to criticize private equity funds; saying you're sorry now isn't a walk-back, it's a flip-flop, of Romney or Gingrich proportions.