Obama’s Crony Capitalism and His Top 2008 Donors

The New American ^ | 3/22/12 | Brian Koenig

[Freemarkets101]

President Obama raised several hundred million dollars during the 2008 election, more than twice what Republican rival John McCain raised and a far cry more than any other U.S. President before him. The result? Obama’s fundraising achievements have ushered in a degree of crony capitalism Americans have quite possibly never witnessed before.

The voluminous scale of political favoritism, and in some cases downright corruption, in the current administration has undermined taxpayers and trampled on the U.S. Constitution, as corporate bailouts, legislative kickbacks, and shady government appointments have become commonplace in the Obama White House.

Crony capitalism, also referred to as “cronyism,” takes place when entities use the power and authority of government to capitalize in the marketplace. These entities, which are often large corporations, commonly receive lavish government favors after offering public endorsements and bulky bundles of donations during an election season.

During the 2008 election cycle, Obama raised a record-breaking $745 million, with some of his largest campaign contributions streaming from Google, Microsoft, General Electric, WilmerHale, and Goldman Sachs. Indeed, Obama’s top 20 donors doled out $13,382,825 in 2008, more than three times the $4,034,622 contributed by John McCain’s top 20 donors.

For clarification purposes, the figures do not reflect contributions from the organizations themselves; instead the money came from the organizations’ political action committees, individual owners and employees, and immediate family members.

Owing to contribution limit restrictions, organizations that bundle together large individual contributions have often ranked among the top donors to presidential candidates, which was particularly true of Obama’s 2008 campaign. This, of course, breeds an essential question: Why contribute such vast sums of money to a presidential candidate? Are big donors supporting a candidate solely because of political ideologies, or are they expecting a return on their investment?

Some assertions of Obama’s corrupt cronyism may seem speculative, or maybe coincidental, but when digested as a whole, the comprehensiveness of Obama’s 2008 campaign strategy, combined with his administration’s inexorable devotion to political bargaining, establishes almost unquestionable guilt of cronyism. (The donation amounts cited were compiled from OpenSecrets.org.)

Sorry, this is far too long to post the whole thing.

http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/11211-obamas-crony-capitalism-and-his-top-2008-donors

[BlatherNaut]

A few weeks before the election, the RNC alleged that Obama's campaign accepted donations from foreign nationals, received contributions that had exceed limits and submitted fictitious donor names to the agency. The status of this investigation is unknown, though the FEC confirmed it received the complaint.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/FEC-Launches-Obama-Campaign-Audie-205014-1.html

[NormsRevenge]

Uhhh.. What am I bid for my next solar bail-out?

Let's start bidding at 1 billion , shall we?

[Standing Wolf]

We apparently didn’t notice it was a Chicago way snake when we picked it up.

[doc11355]

We apparently didn’t notice it was a Chicago way snake when we picked it up.

What do you mean "we"? Some of us [actually on FR, most of us] noticed it well in advance.