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Tag: President Obama

Private Equity CEO’s Fail With Social Issues.

Private Equity CEO’s Fail With Social Issues.

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I have a membership with a health club where quite a few GOP business people attend.    Many of these people are quite rich.  The men’s locker room is often times loud with anti Obama opinions.  In particular, I watched one individual who was against Obama right after he won the presidency.  I did not think his view as because of prejudice.  The man is very good at investing money but I am soon to realize that he may be stupid about people and social issues.  I am always trying to figure out things to a logical conclusion and I just could not figure out why so many GOP men held such strong opinions against the president.  Just prior to President Obama running for president a second time and about a week or two before the election was held, the Wall Street Journal ran some articles describing how just about all the financial institutions donated vast sums of money to the Romney campaign and virtually nothing to Obama.

August 27, 2012: Wall Street’s Singer Makes His Influence Felt

October 9, 2012: Political Wisdom: Goldman Drops Obama for Romney.

The articles stated (in my words) that Obama failed to genuflect to the financial institution wishes.  The financial institutions wanted even more profits and someone who they could more easily control.  When Obama won the presidency with an impressive margin a second time, I began to realize that the business leaders of all those financial institutions totally failed to understand how this nation was changing, failed to predict the election, failed to understand the social forces that were changing since the past four years.  They wasted vast sums of money and failed to buy access.  One might go so far as claiming that they were below the intelligence level of the very people who voted for Obama.  If this is actually true, then why do we give business leaders so much credit for course corrections on issues outside of their personal knowledge?  Might we require that business people who have political influence in government policy  not go beyond what they directly understand?

Political Donors Win Lottery?

Political Donors Win Lottery?

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The top list of money donors to Obama’s campaign includes a number of top universities.  Here is the list (from  opensecrets.org) in order of amount donated:

Top, first donor:  University of California:  $1,123,898
5th donor:  Harvard University:   $779,460
9th donor:  Stanford University:  $448,184
15th donor:  Columbia University:  $502,866
19th donor:  University of Chicago:  $456,209

The OpenSecrets web site prints this explanation:  “The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.”

The total donation from these top university contributors amounts to  3,310,617.
In the Los Angeles Times (Sunday January 25, 2009, A15) it was reported (Boehner [R]) “cited plans to pump 6 billion into wealthy colleges and universities …”

Sounds like the political process might be another type of lottery.  The universities pay a bit over 3 million and get paid back over 6 billion.  With two candidates running for office, I would say the odds are 50 / 50; pretty good odds.

That’s pretty smart.  Become a really bid donor to a successful president candidacy and you can reap a stupendous reward.  Oh, I almost forgot.  We, the tax payer, actually pay this huge amount.  Oh I almost forgot.  They explain that this pay out is part of a stimulus package.  Still sounds like the lottery to me.