Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall St. Cash

[onpatrol98]

Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall St. Cash
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: June 12, 2011

WASHINGTON — 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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/politics/13donor.html?_r=1&ref=us

[villager]

1. "I 'hope' you didn't think I was actually going 'change' anything! It's safe to contribute!"

:thumbsup:

[vroomvroom]

7. That says it all! nt

[notesdev]

2. It shouldn't be a hard sell

they are after all his only supporters that remain unknifed in the back and without a designated spot under the bus.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[vaberella]

4. This is BS but good on you for trying. n/t

[woo me with science]

5. "Mr. Obama, who enraged many financial industry executives a year and a half ago...

...by labeling them “fat cats” and criticizing their bonuses..."

He called them "fat cats" and criticized their bonuses? He CRITICIZED them?!


Oh my god. No wonder they are mad.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Let's hope more on Wall Street share Mr. Wolf's (CEO of UBS America) view...

(Of course, it all depends on what his definition of 'smart' reforms is.)

“Fund-raising is certainly different than last time around in ’07,” Mr. Wolf said. “Not everybody on Wall Street agrees with the financial regulatory legislation. But as someone who witnessed firsthand the Lehman weekend at the New York Fed, there are certainly many of us in the financial services community, myself included, that fully support smart reforms.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/politics/13donor.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=us

[flpoljunkie]

8. More on this from Time's Adam Sorensen: Obama and Wall Street

Obama and Wall Street
By ADAM SORENSEN

Monday, June 13, 2011

For those accusing the President of merely groveling to an industry he supposedly let off easy on financial regulation, just consider this: Obama didn’t have to pursue financial regulation legislation. There were compromises to be sure; he didn’t take an axe to largest institutions and he didn’t follow through with an industry tax to recoup losses from the bailouts or pre-fund some of the liquidation authority’s operating costs. But he didn’t have to do anything at all. And when the chips were down and some powerful Democrats were telling him to jettison Elizabeth Warren’s consumer bureau and cut a deal with Republicans, he declined. Amid drastic cuts this year, he won spending modest increases for the SEC and CFTC in the 2011 budget.

It’s now in President Obama’s interest to make up with Wall Street. As always, it’s in Wall Street’s interests to try to maximize profits. But let’s not pretend this is about name calling. If suffering through a few “fat cat” epithets would net a few dollars , I have no doubt they would do it.

http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/13/obama-and-wall-street