Thread: Obama Reaches Out to Wall Street Donors

Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall St. Cash

A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House’s Blue Room.

The guests were asked for their thoughts on how to speed the economic recovery, then the president opened the floor for over an hour on hot issues like hedge fund regulation and the deficit.

Mr. Obama, who enraged many financial industry executives a year and a half ago by labeling them “fat cats” and criticizing their bonuses, followed up the meeting with phone calls to those who could not attend.

The event, organized by the Democratic National Committee, kicked off an aggressive push by Mr. Obama to win back the allegiance of one of his most vital sources of campaign cash — in part by trying to convince Wall Street that his policies, far from undercutting the investor class, have helped bring banks and financial markets back to health.

Last month, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, traveled to New York for back-to-back meetings with Wall Street donors, ending at the home of Marc Lasry, a prominent hedge fund manager, to court donors close to Mr. Obama’s onetime rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. And Mr. Obama will return to New York this month to dine with bankers, hedge fund executives and private equity investors at the Upper East Side restaurant Daniel.

Well hey, where else is Obama going to get the money to run his campaign? Why waste time courting the support of working and middle class citizens? They don't have any money left. It's all in Wall Street's hands now.

Who's to say Obama was soliciting donations? I wasn't there, was anyone here there? It could be he wanted to get their input and work with them to come up with ideas to help this economy. If i or anyone else was not there in the room with them, then ya don't know what went on, so hold that criticism unless you have factual info what was said in THE BLUE ROOM

Originally Posted by beatleboy

Who's to say Obama was soliciting donations? I wasn't there, was anyone here there? It could be he wanted to get their input and work with them to come up with ideas to help this economy. If i or anyone else was not there in the room with them, then ya don't know what went on, so hold that criticism unless you have factual info what was said in THE BLUE ROOM

If you think the New York Times is lying, bring it up with them.

Otherwise, stop playing games. Obama knows what side his bread is buttered on and he knows he needs Wall Street money if he wants to win the next election. No point in attempting to deny this.

Originally Posted by Blueneck

This doesn't surprise me. Since the Citizen's United ruling, Republicans have made a bundle from corporate interests. Of course the Dems are going to get in on the action.

Focusing on Citizens United is a somewhat futile exercise. All it does is make it a little easier for corporations to do the same things they've been doing for decades to buy elections. The whole system was rotten long before 2010.

The fact unions are pissed and saying they aren't going to donate to Democrats who don't support them is going to be interesting to watch also.

Trumka & co. talk a good game but at the end of the day they will be right back in bed with the Democrats.

Do you think they are going to start endorsing and funding Green, Socialist, Working Families candidates against Democrats? Don't count on it.

Originally Posted by Kropotkin

If you think the New York Times is lying, bring it up with them.

Otherwise, stop playing games. Obama knows what side his bread is buttered on and he knows he needs Wall Street money if he wants to win the next election. No point in attempting to deny this.

I will deny until i get proof he has taken donations from them, but then because of the Supreme Court, no one has to say where they got money, so we may never know if he gets it from wall street or not, but i will concede that it is a possibility.

Originally Posted by beatleboy

I will deny until i get proof he has taken donations from them, but then because of the Supreme Court, no one has to say where they got money, so we may never know if he gets it from wall street or not, but i will concede that it is a possibility.

We know for a fact that he has gotten money from Wall Street; Goldman Sachs was his #1 contributor in 2008. And that's why he's back again feeding at the Wall Street trough.

Go ahead and "deny" whatever you want. Reasonable people accept that things actually went down as reported in the Times and other sources, as opposed to your fantasy land where Obama secretly meets with a bunch of Wall Street fat cats just to have a good time.

Obama met with Wall Street execs to try to woo financial donations from them. That's what happened, and that's the topic of this thread. Do you have something to say about this fact?