Playing the refs with skill and cash
by digby
Wall Street may be metaphorically beating mean old President Obama with a stick for calling them (sniff) fat cats, but they are offering him plenty of carrots to soothe the pain:
Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.
Obama’s key advantage over the GOP field is the ability to collect bigger checks because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his reelection effort.
As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all of the GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data. The numbers show that Obama retains a persistent reservoir of support among Democratic financiers who have backed him since he was an underdog presidential candidate four years ago.
Well, why wouldn’t he? It’s not as if the financial sector is suffering (despite their incessant whining about how awful it is to be unloved.) And the sad thing is that this is just tip money to these guys. They have enough to buy off both parties many times over and not feel even the slightest pinch. Politicians are the cheapest dates in town.
This is why this isn’t a partisan issue, it’s an ideological issue. Quite a few Americans agree that the country ought to be run by those who own it. Most of them have just been deluded into believing that they are among the owners. (Uncle Karl had some useful things to say about that but we won’t go there …)
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