Corporations should stay out of politics...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Liberal-groups-push-to-apf-2321043209.html?x=0

I'll refrain from commenting on the particular situation with Target...in general though, this is the exact reason why it's in the best interest of corporations and companies to stay out of the election part of politics. In this example, if Target donates money to a candidate or organization on "the other side" they are opening themselves up to everyone demanding that they also donate to their "side" in order not to alienate anyone.

So, while I firmly believe that there shouldn't be a law prohibiting anyone from making political donations or support (the Supreme Court struck down the laws that have been passed to try to limit and categorize who and what can and can't donate, and personally I think that any type of grouping or limiting is a violation of the first amemdment), I believe companies are smartest to stay out of this stuff, and stick to doing things based on business decisions. A good example are companies that offer domestic partner benefits to their employees - it's much easier (and to me, less discriminating) to say "we offer domestic partner benefits to our employees because we want to attract the best talent available, regardless of their race, gender, orientation, etc." vs. "we offer domestic partner benefits to our employees because we are taking a moral stand in favor of the civil rights of GLBT people". To take the position of wanting to hire the best and brightest employees, period, is as non-discriminating as you can be, and is a hard statement for anyone to argue with or be offended by.